Soft Focus 2174


Staring at the screen in disbelief as the BBC broadcast a preview of a quite literally soft focus “interview” of Theresa May by a simpering Nick Robinson. North Korean stuff. For Panorama.
“Prime Minister, a lot of people liked it when you described yourself as a bloody difficult woman”. Astonishingly sycophantic stuff from the state broadcaster.


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2,174 thoughts on “Soft Focus

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  • joeblogs

    Which is exactly what Tory PM John Major did, when he negotiated the 25 year opt-out from the single currency for the UK, back in 1992.
    “Game, set and match!” was his comment, affecting braggadocio in his comment to the press.
    He would not have agreed and signed up to it at all, if he had had any choice. Major passed the buck, then Cameron, now PM May is left holding the bag. She probably had no idea at all, that she was being filletted like a kipper for what was to come. A more perfect example of ‘pride coming before a fall’ I have yet to see.
    Time’s up, now. Time to join the single currency, or get lost.
    Well, PM May can now say:
    “Well, you voted, so good luck with it, I’m off to write my memoirs. Oh, and by the way, it’ll be the ‘Labour’ government to blame for the social upheavals to come – I resign.”
    There really was never a choice, at all – if you ever voted for this, brexit or remain, doesn’t matter, you have been right royally played.

    • N_

      What will she write in her memoirs? “My achievements” would have to be blank. She won’t want to say much about her relations with the Community Security Trust when she was Home Secretary. Something about kitten heels maybe? Diabetis. Not having had any children. “The nasty party”. I doubt she’ll get a big advance.

      • N_

        From the dustbin of history where she so richly deserves to be thrown, she could remind people she’s so hard that when SNP MP George Kerevan asked her “Are you prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children?” she replied “Yes.”

        • Dungroanin

          Major signed us up to the WTO in 1994. Without a vote in parliament. Or a referendum. That was his job. He has and is well rewarded for that.

          • joeblogs

            Dung:
            And you think the WTO will pay tribute to the UK?
            Just give us their stuff, for free?
            Would you do anything for someone who was running an overdraft yet wants to pay you by cheque?
            Any fool can sign a meaningless document.

      • joeblogs

        Well, John Major, who actually did the dirty deed (and pretended it was a win) wrote his memoirs. The schools he went, the clubs he attended, his likes, his dislikes – a lot of waffle, really, since he’d sold the country down the river and didn’t have the decency to say what he had done, and did little of political substance, at all.

        s (You can buy a copy of his autobiography on Amazon for £20, if the nail in the outside lavvy is short of paper) /s

        • JOML

          Sold his wife down the river too, when he shagged Edwina Currie. Scumbag in professional and private life. Quite common for his ‘sort’?

          • James

            Bit harsh, perhaps.
            I commented elsewhere on here that in my experience most “public figures” I’ve met are wildly different in person from what I’d imagined. Many are actually far worse, Peter Mandelson perhaps the most memorable. John Prescott was far worse too, but in a hilarious way.
            I met Major, when he’d gone to China to make some cash on the after dinner circuit. It was absolutely a private visit, nothing to do with HMG, and his premiership long in the past. There’s quite a back story, but broadly he had politely refused a rather cheeky request to rope him into opening an orphanage by someone who should have known better.
            So far, so good fir the folks on here: a callous, money-grabbing arse
            wipe, may his flesh burn and blister in a perpetual hellfire of damnation, & c.
            The evening before he was due to fly back to UK, he joined me in the embarrassingly ornate Executive floor (or the Wanker Lounge, as I called it) of the Marriott where I lived. I think he was glad to see a Western face; the expat community numbered fewer than 100.
            We had a chat for half an hour, and I came to the conclusion that he was a very “human”, honest and utterly unaffected man. A bit of a lightweight, in all accuracy, and I interpolated (possibly wrongly) he had been a somewhat reluctant PM.
            He certainly did have a sense of public duty, I concluded. The reason why he had refused the ad hoc inappropriate request to open the orphanage was that it would cost the taxpayer extra for his security detail, and fail to achieve anything of possible benefit to anyone.
            I wasn’t really very impressed, and had all but forgotten this, but evil he certainly was not.

          • joeblogs

            You know who you are.
            I draw a dividing line between a person’s professional and private lives.
            My comments concerned the man’s position vis-a-vis with the Maastricht treaty; I fail to see how bringing personal smears into it is any help, at all.
            Treat others as you would have them treat you.

        • Trowbridge H. Ford

          May would have to account for the murders of Gareth Williams, Gudrum Loftus, Steve Rawlings, and the al-Hillis et al.for starters≥

  • Sharp Ears

    The wheels of British ‘justice’ do grind exceedingly slow.

    Guildford pub bombs: Birmingham bomb ruling delays inquest
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45579365

    A pre-inquest review into the IRA’s Guildford pub bombs has been postponed due to an imminent ruling over the Birmingham bomb attacks. The Appeal Court is expected to say next week whether the suspected Birmingham bombers can be named.
    Surrey Coroner Richard Travers postponed his hearing after lawyers for Surrey Police advised him the ruling would be “potentially relevant”.

    Lawyers representing a survivor and two families have criticised the move.

    A Surrey Police letter to Mr Travers, which has been seen by the BBC, said police lawyers had seen a copy of the draft Birmingham judgement under embargo. The letter stated: “It is potentially relevant to the hearing on Friday.”

    Eleven people including Gerry Conlon were wrongly convicted after the Guildford blasts Police had suggested the coroner delay his judgement but not the hearing, but Mr Travers said that was not satisfactory. The Woking hearing was to hear submissions on whether a full inquest into the Guildford deaths should be resumed.

    Five people were killed and 65 were injured in explosions at Guildford pubs in 1974, after which 11 people – known as the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven – were wrongly convicted.

    Christopher Stanley, from KRW Law, said the coroner’s decision to postpone “showed a lack of understanding of the concerns of the families”. He said the family of bomb victim Ann Hamilton were “disappointed” with Mr Travers’ decision and his “failure to consult” their lawyers.’

    Appalling. We are talking about people who were killed in 1974. Surrey Police acquired adverse publicity when details of their ill treatment of the Guildford Four emerged. Now they are intervening in these proceedings.

  • Sarge

    I’m hearing poor Teresa got disrespected yesterday by a host of filthy, ignorant inferiors. The pigs couldn’t just gratefully sign up to what she told them to, even suggesting that her bold Brexit plan is illogical and unworkable. Scum!
    Fortunately she’s now safely back in the embrace of our media bubble, where the response has, quite rightly, been: ….. ‘ Boo hiss to foreign baddies! ‘ How we’ll laugh as we march on to glory under our defiant Queen Teresa, envy of all the world!

    • N_

      You got it! And “PIIGS” is even the very word that British economics “experts” use to describe the supposed dirtiest of the dirty on the continent, plus the Irish.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Joaquin Flores’ article seems quite credible at first reading, except for a few things.

    The French, are not quite THAT stupid – sure they probably lobbed a few bombs at Syria but not at The Russian Aircraft. They knew they were sitting ducks, and have now probably worked out why. This is not going to enhance French-Israeli relations.

    Even us British are not quite THAT stupid. They admittedly were up in the air and watching what was going on – and they had a sub underwater – and they knew they were being tailed by 2 Russian subs, and even they realised.it simply wasn’t worth starting WWIII by shooting down a large old Russian airplane that had 15 very experienced Specialists onboard simply watching what was going on…and reporting live back to the groundstation as fast as modern communications allow.

    Isreal. They are That Stupid.

    The Americans weren’t even there.

    Good result – We are all still here, and can mainly thank President Putin

    In the process of dying, these Russian Servicemen may have prevented World War III from starting, and no human being can be more heroic than that.

    Thank You

    Tony

    • glenn_nl

      Hey Tony – good to see you’re still going, you old dog!

      Saw an ace band in Amstelveen the other day called ‘Harris’ – an Iron Maiden tribute band. Top notch stuff, they didn’t shy away from the more difficult numbers, and Dennis Stratton actually was on tour with them. Terrific atmosphere.

      Considering how good value they are, do you think these tribute bands deserve more credit than they generally get?

      • BrianFujisan

        Hi Glen
        Sounds Good.. wonder what the Group name means to them.. We of course have The Outer Hebridean Isle of Harris.. with some of the best Beaches in the world.

        keep and Eye out for a band called ‘ Maiden Scotland’

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-BLNIOUBCk

        Their Main act though is StillMarillion, doing Fish Era covers. Brilliant band.

        • glenn_nl

          Hello Brian- good to hear from you. Hope things are well in your world mate.

          Steve Harris was the main songwriter in Iron Maiden, that’s probably where they got their name from. Here’s a sample:

          http://harris666.nl/demo.html

          Well worth it for 15 euros 🙂

          Shame I didn’t see Marillion with Fish back in the day… you reckon there’s much chance of such performances again?

    • Paul Greenwood

      Why does The Saker have an item suggesting a British sub – HMS Talent (?) was on station but desisted from firing Tomahawks because two Russian subs were tracking it ?

  • Clydebuilt

    BBC Radio 4 Archive on 4 . . “What if there never was a ‘truth’ era before ‘post -truth’
    9 to 10pm

    Examines a century of disinformation to identify tricks and techniques that are still I use today . . . . .

    At one point concentrates on a population told constant lies.

  • BrianFujisan

    Tony
    Well said on World Peace Day,

    however were the U.K in the air to just watch.. And we Know from Nevermind and Sharp Eears, and some others that there was indeed a big increase in raf jet activity.
    And do we even have to be in the air to know whats going on. Did Treeza Order our part in WWIII incase of retaliation from Russisa. Is she / They / WE that stupid.. Well Scots voted to stay in the union, Based on Lies, and Broken promises ( Lies ) .. And now we get Brexit, Based on more Lies, All very stupid indeed.

    Anyhoo..Have a good World Peace Day / evening.

      • BrianFujisan

        Nasty Wikipedia try to make it look like the U.K has the authority to vote for such Bombings of Innocents

        BUT the Hard fact is they Do Not, Under Inernational Law..So it’s yet more U.K war crimes. The U.N are an Evil Stain on Humanity – Aproving Genocidal Sanctions – Blind eye to illeagal war crimes.

        • Blunderbuss

          “Blind eye to illeagal war crimes”.

          Except when they are committed by people we don’t like.

          • Andyoldlabour

            @Blunderbuss,
            that is of course correct. I wonder how many folks realise, that NO US citizen will ever be allowed to be tried for war crimes at the Hague? This was written into their constitution under the Bush/Cheney era. – convenient that with all the torture and murders committed by them around the World over many decades.
            I suspect that some similar “law” has been passed by the UK to protect our war criminals.
            I always wonder how it is possible for countries to insist that other countries follow rules which certain countries ignore completely – Israel, US, UK, France etc.

    • Tom Welsh

      The only conceivable purpose of the British nuclear “deterrent” nowadays is to make quite sure that, in the event of a thermonuclear exchange, we too shall be incinerated.

      Back in the days of the USSR, it was possible to argue (rather tenuously) that the Soviets had at least the capability, if not the intention, of attacking Western Europe.

      Today there is not the slightest reason for the UK to have nuclear weapons other than to give British politicians “a seat at the top table” (which they don’t need or deserve).

      ‘The post-war Labour government spent vastly more on defence than on the welfare state partly in an attempt to give Britain influence. Whilst it was deciding whether the UK should also develop an independent nuclear deterrent, the foreign secretary Ernest Bevin arrived back from demeaning negotiations in Washington. “I never wish to be spoken to like that by an American again,” he said, “Britain must have the bomb”’.

      – Michael Portillo (Sunday Times, 3/12/2006: http://www.michaelportillo.co.uk/articles/art_nipress/special.htm)

      • James

        I do think there was a great deal of genuine fear of conflict post WWII, which only stopped shaping policy as those with remembrances of total war were in their dotage, perhaps as late as the 1990s. [I think future historians may even judge the true end of this “era” as late as the passing of Heath in 2005.]
        Since then we have entered a “post-post WII”. It is hard to imagine a justification for Trident going forward, to be absolutely specific, although as the Skripal incident has shown, there will be concerted efforts made in that direction probably for quite a while yet.
        This is all far too simplistic, of course, but I broadly agree the risks of nuclear capability have long outweighed the benefits, and arguably always did.

      • Paul Greenwood

        “I never wish to be spoken to like that by an American again,”

        It does not sound like Ernie Bevin founder of T&GWU

      • Herbie

        “Today there is not the slightest reason for the UK to have nuclear weapons other than to give British politicians “a seat at the top table” (which they don’t need or deserve).”

        It’s probably the City of London that has a seat at top table.

        Interesting documentary about the local and global implications of what the City has been up to:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8

    • Radar O’Reilly

      Er, actually it’s those fiendish brits responsible for it all. . .

      The Carrington Event
      On the morning of September 1, 1859, amateur astronomer Richard Carrington ascended into the private observatory attached to his country estate outside of London. After cranking open the dome’s shutter to reveal the clear blue sky, he pointed his brass telescope toward the sun and began to sketch a cluster of enormous dark spots that freckled its surface. Suddenly, Carrington spotted what he described as “two patches of intensely bright and white light” erupting from the sunspots. Five minutes later the fireballs vanished, but within hours their impact would be felt across the globe.

    • Dave

      As the article says, this is a G1 MINOR geomagnetic storm, one of a whole series that is expected at this point of the solar cycle. Way way below the level of the famous Carrington storm. Media scaremongering.

    • Clark

      From the Daily Star, er, I hesitate to call it a “report”:

      “solar storms […] can also create drag on satellites and planes in low-Earth orbit, overriding the navigation systems and putting them on course corrections”

      Any “planes in low-Earth orbit” are already in need of a bit more than a “course correction”. We’d best launch some heat shields to get them back down safely.

      • Clark

        Conspiracy theorists, bookmark that page! It’ll be invaluable when one of your “theories” needs “proof” that aircraft can achieve LEO.

  • N_

    Jonathan “CIA Z__nist” Freedland writes “We now need a people’s vote on Brexit. But don’t assume (R)emain would win”.

    No shit, Sherlock! My guess is the same as Dominic Cummings’s: Leave would win a EUref 2 by Leave around 60%-40%.

        • Patmur

          They must have learnt it from the British. If you can remember that far back. When we joined the EU in 1973 the British voted by an overwhelming majority (much larger than the vote for Leave this time) to join the EU. However the Euro-haters demanded another referendum and a new one was held in 1975 – the new vote confirmed the one two years earlier.

          • Dave Lawton

            Patmur it seems you were unaware voters in the 1975 referendum the UK were lied to and propagandised to remain in the EU which was secretly funded by the IRD a department of the foreign office headed by Norman Reddaway who was the worlds biggest liar and propagandist to vote to remain in the EU in 1975.The IRD was set up by the Labour party.The Leave voters had the generosity of spirit to accept the result and went on to support it not like today.

          • Paul Greenwood

            There was NO referendum to join the EEC – never has been. The first Referendum was in 1975 to solve Wilson’s Cabinret Split on whether to accept the Renegotiated Terms………..you must have been fed some real porkies in your History lessons

          • Mr Shigemitsu

            There was no referendum to join the EEC in 1973.

            Ted Heath took the UK into Europe without a referendum. Labour, under Wilson, won the second 1974 with a majority, and offered a referendum in 1975 on whether or not to remain in the EEC.

            The Yes vote won by a decisive majority, it’s campaign had twice the funding of the No campaign, and divided Labour along classic Left/Right lines, with most leftist MPs including Benn, Foot, Shore, Micardo, and Gould opposing EEC membership – what we would now call LEXIT.

            It may come as a surprise to younger viewers, that the right wing tabloids, including the Daily Mail(!), were very much in favour of UK joining the EEC at that time, because they saw it even then as representing the interests of businesses and banks.

            The Labour left was finally persuaded to embrace the EC by Jacques Delors’ 1988 speech to the TUC, in which he promised all sorts of workers’ protections under the Social Contract, which, faced with having lost three elections to the Tories, Labour were desperate to accept.

            It appears to be an even lesser known fact on the UK left that Mario Draghi declared, in a 2012 WSJ article, that “Social Europe was dead”, and that austerity was the now name of the game. Nothing has changed since then, yet the left seem to broadly support the EU nonetheless, while the right are generally anti.

            How times change.

          • James

            HE may find of interest here a video on YouTube of a star-studded Oxford Union debate from 1975. Barbara Castle/Peter Shore against and Ted Heath/Jeremy Thorpe for the motion (I think). I would send the link, but there’s a problem on here right now, so just Google it.
            I’ve not watched that vid for quite some years, but I recall that Jeremy Thorpe was on tip top form. Very soon after the debate his world caved in with the onslaught of the Norman Scott Rinka the dog shooting.
            A most enjoyable debate, I hope you agree.

          • Jude D

            As a non-Briton I always admired the Euro-sceptic tendency in the UK – on both left and right. However in the run up to the referendum I did get to wondering why the Neocon contingent in Britain had become such ardent Brexiteers. What’s in it for them? These guys are not anti-globalists by any stretch – and they’re certainly not opponents of the transnationals and megabanks that control so much of what the EU does. I actually think Hatuey has a certain point about the British media – even the liberal leftish media like the Beeb – tacitly promoting the Brexit cause. My best guess is that the British Neocons and their sponsors are using Brexit as a lever to pressure the rest of Europe into becoming even more globalist friendly, more neo-liberal and more well-disposed towards Neocon war-mongering.

          • Dave Lawton

            Paul Greenwood
            September 22, 2018 at 08:12
            I did not take history lessons I was there. Did you bother to read what I wrote.
            “propagandised to remain in the EU”Maybe it is magical thinking on your part.

            The referendum question “The Government has announced the results of the renegotiation of the United Kingdom’s terms of membership of the European Community.
            Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?
            “permitting a simple YES / NO answer (to be marked with a single (X)).”

        • Dave Lawton

          “They must go on voting until they get it right.”
          (Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission)

          • Andyoldlabour

            @Dave Lawton,
            the same man who is the current chairman of Goldman Sachs International and former PM of Portugal.
            This would be the same Portugal who rely on our contributions each year to TAKE 3,196 million Euros OUT of the EU budget each year, whereas the UK have a net contribution TO the EU of 4,872 million Euros each year.
            I can quite see how Barroso and other scroungers would be scared to see us and our money not propping them up any more.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union

          • N_

            @Dave – what do those in and out figures cover? Do they cover e.g. EU subsidies paid to big British farmers?

          • Moocho

            “They must go on voting until they get it right.”
            (Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission) …….so funny, crying with laugter. we all know this just about sums up the world at the moment, but no-one cares, not even slightly. I googled this quote and found this:
            “The great EU quotes: Why we should leave the EU in their own words.” hahaha!!! http://www.politicalscrapbook.co.uk/kirk-kus-blog/the-great-eu-quotes/ Jose Manuel Barroso weighs in with some real classics, telling it like it is. At least he’s bloody honest!

          • Paul Greenwood

            Reference to your posting above – I was responding to Patmur…..but as the say “if the cap fits”. Yes I did read exactly what you wrote but it was irrelevant to my response to Patmur. As for 1975 I remember it well

        • Hatuey

          Let’s be clear, I hope the English voters get exactly what they voted for — Brexit. I want it to be the hardest of hard brexits but there was actually very little detail on what future relations with the EU would look like.

          There was a lot of bravado, take our country back, trade freely with the world, the EU needs us more than we need them, and plenty of thinly veiled racism too.

          But now it seems people have realised that access to EU markets is vitally important, which it is, and the WTO route will probably result in about a 20% reduction in economic activity. That’s a lot of jobs but let’s do it.

          If a political party stands in an election and wins on a manifesto that offers another referendum, that would be perfectly democratic and legitimate. Only in those circumstances should there be another referendum. It’s on that basis that Scotland will have a referendum on U.K. membership.

          • Paul Greenwood

            So long as UK gets rid of that burgeoning trade deficit it matters not……..that deficit is second highest on earth after USA and unsustainable for a country heading towards the largest population in Western Europe. Car imports need to be reduced dramatically – block all diesels.

          • Mr Shigemitsu

            Not all nations can be net exporters, by definition.

            We exchange real goods and services that foreigners slog out their guts to produce, for miniature portraits of Her Majesty, which cost the BoE nothing to produce.

            Who has the best side of that deal?

          • N_

            A 20% reduction in “economic activity” means famine.

            The Tory god of gods Thomas Malthus will have come home.

            Half the rich will flee the country and the other half will retreat behind 10 foot walls if they’re not already behind them.

      • N_

        I want something to happen (in this case a referendum that Remain wins) that I don’t believe will happen. I think WW3 will happen but hope I’m wrong and it doesn’t. No contradiction.

        • James

          I would go further and say “I know WW3 will happen”, though it would be a matter of semantics for future historians to decide what scale of conflict was worthy of that epithet.
          I do not believe Einstein’s famous, and rather pompous prognostications will prove prescient. The quote was “of its time”, and as an attempt to shape policy, which was surely his motivation in making it, he betrayed his political naivety.
          I’m beginning to wonder what high jinks can be invoked to make your first wish come true. Something must be done was seldom truer than it is now in post WW2 Britain.

    • Patmur

      You can’t assume that because like the last referendum there would be another media hate campaign against the Poles, French etc. No real analysis, much talk about being disrespected – and of course we cant be disrespected ! What respect have we shown our neighbours?? Reading the Irish and German press is a salutary antedote to the “British” press. It provides a rather different story.

      • Paul Greenwood

        German press is controlled media – you mean Springer Press where Merkel’s husband is on the board ? Read Handelsblatt this morning where it is shocked at the behaviour in Salzburg and how dangerous it will be for EU to have humiliated a British PM and the consequences will be long-lasting.

        Read comments in Die Welt – either people think UK gets handouts from EU or they agree and want Dexit.

        German and French press are slavish to Government……..German press has a reputation for faking news. Just last week they posted in Die Welt photos of a “Protest in Chemnitz” but as readers pointed out the photograph was in Berlin !!!

        German press is bought. On 8 Oct 2008 the editors had a meeting in the Chancellery and agreed to print nothing suggesting banks were in trouble – Gleichschaltung – ever since they have followed Government line

        • Hatuey

          You really are over-egging the relevance of May. The only reason she was allowed to keep her job after the last general election was because nobody else was desperate enough for attention to challenge her for it. She sat crying after that election for 2 days.

          As for chequers and the EU’s supposed humiliation of May, they told her weeks ago that it wouldn’t fly. Many others in the UK and her own party told her weeks ago that Chequers was unworkable. Anyone that has looked at the detail on her proposals knows they are ridiculously stupid.

          If Britain/England wants to be taken seriously in the world, a good place to start would be with a PM that has a majority in his or her own parliament, the backing of his or her own party, and some proposals that hold water.

          Something nobody has mentioned in all this – to what extent has May’s dependence on DUP support influenced her proposals on Brexit?

          • giyane

            Hatuey
            Are you saying that HMG have made no reference to EU demands for two years?
            The Labour party decided to accept all the unacceptable parts of the IHRC definition of AS which basically means you can never criticise Israeli apartheid which is founded on Biblical exceptionalism that has since been cancelled. Corbyn remained outside that decision because it is nuts.

            If Corbyn was in May’s shoes in Salzburg, he would have demanded resprct from the EU exactly as May has done. But the EU don’t do respect, they impose unequal laws and refuse to listen to alternatives. Once you agree to the unacceptable they then extend the list of EU demands, delving into their encyclopedia Eurannica of unknown rules.

            Germany and France have been prominent in co-opting the Muslim brotherhood as a political organisation to control the Muslims of Syria even though the Muslims of Syria absolutely do not want the Muslim Brotherhood to represent them to the non-Muslims. Typically the EU forces anybody inside or outside to follow its rules.

            I personally think Mrs May did well to stand up to them on principle for refusing to listen. If the EU refuses to listen, the UK will go over their heads and talk to people who do listen. It’s called divorce and it’s painful, but nobody should ever be forced to give up their basic principles.

          • Hatuey

            Giyane, you have an intellectual responsibility to look at the bigger picture here, and look beyond the narrow question of the EU’s relationship with the Israel-Palestine situation and all connected issues. Even if you disagree with me on that, you would accept that whatever happens with Brexit is unlikely to make any difference to the people of Gaza.

            As for Corbyn, I genuinely have no idea what he wants or what he’d do on Brexit or anything else. Labour is practicing the art of saying nothing whilst pretending to be principled. Even on something as basic as Trident Corbyn can’t stand true to principle — as far as principle goes that really is the lowest lying fruit in the whole orchard.

            You talk about the EU acting insultingly towards May. No such issues arose when she slammed the door in the face of Sturgeon and refused to discuss the referendum that she has 3 democratic mandates for (yes 3j.

            Double standards aside, May walked into a door and like so many idiots in this world she talks when she should listen. The EU signaled weeks ago that Chequers couldn’t work. Actually, on the detail of the Irish border, they told her over a year ago that her idea wouldn’t work.

            Listen, don’t talk…

            Beyond the nuts and bolts of this debate, it’s my view that the Brexit referendum, the debate on immigration, and everything that has happened since is more down to what “the city” wants than May or anyone else. I think they want ‘no deal’ and I predicted that it would come to that amidst a debate about how unreasonable the Europeans are. Let me know if you want me to dig out my posts on this from last year.

          • Andyoldlabour

            @Giyane,
            What a fantastic post, and especially this paragraph –

            “If Corbyn was in May’s shoes in Salzburg, he would have demanded resprct from the EU exactly as May has done. But the EU don’t do respect, they impose unequal laws and refuse to listen to alternatives. Once you agree to the unacceptable they then extend the list of EU demands, delving into their encyclopedia Eurannica of unknown rules.”

            I love visiting Europe, love the people and the culture, and have spoken to many people there and enjoyed their company.
            However, I do not like the EU, because they are full of corrupt, hypocritical, untrustworthy politicians – Junckers, Barnier, Tusk etc who see the organisation to promote their own dubious politics – neoliberalism mainly.

          • Rhys Jaggar

            Hatuey, we have had a PM with majority support since the 1950s, but if FPTP amplifier nonsense is good enough for you….

            Cameron had 60 odd percent in his coalition and I am sure you hated that vitriolically.

            Because we are an immature nation emotionally, we go on with our spoilt child approach to voting, which is guaranteed to split voting into minority pieces of cake…..

          • Paul Greenwood

            Warum soll ich ? Your comment is nonsensical and reflective of your ignorant prejudice. The irrelevant retort is a symptom of remedial education. You should do more understanding and less opinionating

          • nevermind

            Thanks for your considered reply Paul, just reordering my jugular to suit your blade.
            80% of the UK’s MSM is controlled by owners who are right wing orientated, fact.

            To lament about Germany’s press here, homogenized as your own, mein kleiner Dummkopf, is rather pathetic as the whole western news establishment in Europe at large is chiming in with the western Angst of loosing their economic prowess in the world.
            To such an extend that they are whipping up racial fervour in people, against eastern European, Muslims and, as we only now found out, against their own west Indian population they so readily let in to do the jobs they could not be bothered to do, just as Germany invited Turkish Gastarbeiters during the 1960’s.

            As for Brexit, not one of you here,, elsewhere, or in the MSM, ever spoke of the undemocratic nature of the EU 10/20 years ago. Not one of them supported the Green group in the EU Parliament who demanded that Commissioners should be elected a long time ago.
            Politicians who are now complaining, and who are actively plotting for a right wing drive in Europe by means of the ERG, closet fascists et al,HAVE DONE NOWT, DE NADA, JACK SHIT, TO CHANGE THE CIRCUMSTANCES I9N eUROPE.
            Instead they took the money and swung handbags, sat on the fence and whinged about this that and the other.
            democracy loving self centered rogues who could nhot give a moments thought about EU citizens, or voters.

            The AV debacle a few years back made that abundantly clear. Please do try again, by staying i9n and by reforming this unaccountable cabal, rather than apportioni9ng your very own mistakes on your fav.beating boys.

            Enjoy your sunday.

      • giyane

        It wasn’t a ” primary ” , it was a ” binary “. by refusing to be flexible on the terms of the UK leaving, the EU has proved the British electorate’s opinion to be correct. nobody can belong to an person or institution that refuses to listen or be flexible. The problem is that Mrs May tried to argue that we decide to leave because we didn’t like foreigners, which was not true because we do, both here and abroad. now that she is addressing the issue of EU inflexibility she’s starting to engage with the real issue.
        The EU is a bully, a Titanic of a bully, which has so far not discovered its iceberg.

        Maybe China is its iceberg , because China wants to build a physical Silk Road either through Turkey / Bulgaria or through Syria/ Mediterranean to the centre of the EU. If the EU refuses to be flexible with China, china can continue to use the shipping lanes to the West coasts of Europe. Maybe this marriage broke down because the EU is gay? We are waiting for the EU to come out, and explain why it doesn’t want to be in a relationship with the UK. While they are gazing into their souls, we need to get on with our lives, albeit somewhat emotionally and financially bruised by the Freudian introspection of the EU.
        e.g. “Was my potty-training interrupted by WW2? “

        • J Galt

          The UK voted to leave and instigated the legal process of leaving – why is it the EU’s job to do anything other than just watch it leave?

          Stop whining and just fucking go!

          The UK is the most corrupt advanced economy by far, a shithole that keeps most of it’s population in penury.

          Yes the likes of Germany etc have their elites but they spread it about a bit more – a comparison of old age pensions is all it takes to prove that the UK is run by Turds.

          • Paul Greenwood

            2. A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union.

            That agreement shall be negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament. (art 50. TFEU)

            So apparently Art 50 requires An Agreement

          • joeblogs

            J
            “The UK voted to leave and instigated the legal process of leaving – why is it the EU’s job to do anything other than just watch it leave?”.
            That is precisely the part that most cannot or will not understand.
            The UK’s ‘negotiation’ position is something like this:
            “I’m leaving you! Watch me leave, now! I am, I’m really going to leave!.. can’t we still be friends, though? I mean, we can still talk, right?” etc. etc.
            Pathetic.

          • joeblogs

            Paul
            “… negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament.”
            And the first thing the court – before coming to any conclusion – will point out is that the opt-out clause allowing the UK 25 years (since John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty) before joining the Euro, has expired, since 2017.
            The UK cannot weasel it’s way out of that one. Why do you think Cameron abdicated his responsibility, and gave the leave decision to the public? They have all passed the buck, since 1992. Off writing his memoirs, now, no doubt.
            Like I said in my earlier post, the UK position is pathetic.

        • Vivian O'Blivion

          There are at least three major established models of EU association. The Brexiteers told themselves that they would negotiate, nay demand an extra SPECIAL deal of their own ’cause were worth it. At what point did the other EU states give any indication that a forth model of association would be forthcoming?

          • giyane

            Viv O Blov
            Never, but you know if you are in a relationship you have to keep trying to communicate, not just issue a statement and wait two years . The EU is a well-financed institution. The UK has newspapers. Why did the EU not use the newspapers to tell the British people who voted in the Brexit referendum their side of the story. Do they think they can sit like old fossils in the age of the tweet and ignore the public of the UK? Non-communication is passive violence. One Trump tweet is worth a million pages of print. Old-fogeyism is no excuse. The fact that the EU has refused to enter into a dialogue with us is enough grounds for marriage breakdown. ” What did your last slave die of, Mr EU ? “

          • Paul Greenwood

            You are clearly a Rule-Taker.

            In any revolutionary situation such as when you Terminate A Contract Unilaterally you NEGOTIATE. Negotiation is where you fight for your case not sit down and roll over.

            It is clear just how many people are Life’s Acquiescers ready to roll over. How many of you have ever Unilaterally Terminated A Contract ?

            How many have ever litigated a case ?

    • Tom Welsh

      Has Mr Freedland failed to notice that Brexit is a thing only because there has already been a “people’s vote”?

      The establishment are terribly good at not noticing things. But then, as Upton Sinclair remarked a century ago, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.

      • Paul Greenwood

        Freedland is such a joke. A Hampstead boy with early travel experience from private school to Oxford at Sodom College and the arduous world of journalism in London………gilded, golden, silver spoon

  • giyane

    Yesterday Mrs May got served up a pile of steaming bad karma from the British treatment of Ireland in past centuries, and an even bigger pile of good karma from Britain having avoided the Greece treatment by the EU by not entering the single currency. Corbyn might have avoided the bad karma by spinning his contacts with Ireland in some kind of fluffy way, but would he have been able to put two fingers up to the EU from a kinda North Circular Blairite romance with the EU?

    In other words the dose of bad karma Mrs May dealt the EU yesterday far outweighed the plate of bad karma received from the Irish border. Mrs May looks much stronger today having wrapped the EU’s knuckles over its NAZI economic system. So long as we were inside the EU they took absolutely zero notice of anything the British had to say. That’s why they got Brexit and they don’t like it up ’em. Let’s hope more EU politicians learn that the EU is an unaccountable bully, on a mission to acquire unacceptable military and economic power, and demand more respect for their own individual countries as Mrs May did yesterday.

    She kicked them hard in the Junckers which is a lesson long overdue.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    The main problem at the moment, not just in The UK, The EU and most of the World…

    Is That None of Us want to actually vote For Any of This bunch of completely useless wankers..

    However none of them have actually succeeded in kicking WWIII off yet, and no one else (sensiible) has voluteered to go through all the bollocks to get themselves elected.

    It is a pretty crap job, and to her credit, Theresa May still hasn’t resigned, and is still saying some of the correct words (coached by Jacob Rees-Mogg) No we won’t pay you bureaucratic unelected idiots anything when we leave your EU club in a few months time. We never really wanted to join in the first place.

    The EU has been extremely insuting to our current Prime Minister.

    She isn’t that bad, or someone else would have vounteereed for the job.

    Think your life, as if you are Theresa May

    I may insult her, but she is apparently the best we have got – and look at the rest of you,

    She is even better looking than Angela Merkel

    Not sure about the braincells on either side.

    But that is what we have got.

    https://1-tube.ru/watch/hLLZiQAE_dI

    Tony

    • Hatuey

      Your PM is the laughing stock of Europe, a flapping basket-case with about as much political zip as any old bag you’re likely find in a queue for fish cakes.

      In economics they use the term ‘correction’ to describe falls in value and status. England is about to go through a political correction and it’s long overdue.

      Let’s be clear about where England stands in the world today. Pretty much everybody — except Donald Trump and Israel, perhaps — resents the history you want to celebrate. There’s nothing romantic about robbing and murdering people.

      The international system has a way of socialising unpleasant and unruly nations.

      All England has going for it today is its willingness to cater for the needs of criminals and money launderers. That’s an increasingly competitive market though.

      • Paul Greenwood

        Belgian history has such charm. French history is one of undiluted romanticism. German history is unblemished. Spanish history is remembered fondly in South America and Philippines. Italian history in Abyssinia was perfect and the Greeks are ecstatic to recall Italian Occupation. Austria did wonders in Serbia and Galicia and their empire. Poland has such a period of Anti-Semitism and war against its eastern neighbours and persecution of ethnic minorities as to merit a place in Disney Historyworld.

        but the English …..they get Hatuey frothing at the mouth……..great !

        • Hatuey

          None of those countries want to celebrate that stuff today, but England does. Go celebrate it, see how popular you are.

          • Anon1

            But the Scots badly wanted their own empire. It was to rival that of the Spanish or Portuguese. It ended up amounting to nothing more than a swamp in Panama that they had to abandon. These days they can’t even vote for their own independence in a referendum given to them by their colonial masters. The humiliated peoples of the world laugh at Scotland. Is it any wonder they are so salty?

          • Hatuey

            I’m trying to see the connection between what we were discussing and what you typed.

            Okay I give up.

          • Paul Greenwood

            Hatuey….I do……I find your venom quite charming. It is good to lift up the stone and find you writhing under it.

            England is the creator of so much of the modern world and founder of the most civilised nations on the planet. It has created a global literature and a global tongue. It is denigrated because it has failed to take pride in its achievements which simply encourages people like you who should be ridiculed and ignored

          • James

            PG: I tried ridicule, but almost by definition made myself appear the ringing bell. It was especially amusing when he took seriously the comments of a certain Bitter Lake the other evening.
            Prodded and enjoyed occasionally perhaps, but better yet ignored

      • joeblogs

        Hatuey
        A solemn reading of D. M. Low’s abridged (you would need to lock yourself in for three months to read it complete) version of Edward Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ might help some to understand that all empires pass through this, and no-one and nothing can do anything at all to stop it.
        The year 1905, the start of the Dreadnought arms race with Germany, was the final decision that sealed the fate of Great Britain forever.
        With a little less jingoism, we would have been a prosperous nation, still.

        • Paul Greenwood

          If we had done what Jackie Fisher wanted and invaded Germany through The Baltic instead of Gallipoli the war would have ended quickly. Dreadnoughts were a major export business to Brazil and Turkey ironically. Germany had zero prospect of challenging Britain since no part of Germany is north of UK hence it could never commend the northern sea lanes. Britain should have “Copenhagened” the German Fleet

        • Hatuey

          Joeblogs, don’t assume that I share your assumption that England’s decline was anything but a good thing for the world. And don’t assume you know what I have and haven’t read.

          Have you any idea what the life expectancy of an Indian man was in 1905 when your empire was at peak fleece? Some historians, the ones that are more sympathetic to glorious England, say 21 years old. Vinay Lal says 19 years old.

          India was brutally raped by England, just like the rest of the colonies were. Only idiots and vile nationalists think otherwise.

          • Paul Greenwood

            India was brutally raped by England

            Ah how you must have enjoyed the French and Portuguese !

          • Hatuey

            There you do it again, defending English war crimes by saying others did it too. How long do you think a defence like that would last in any court of law?

            The implications of what you’re saying are that any sort of crime goes so long as someone has committed that type of crime before.

            But that’s the past, right? Well, not, it isn’t. All the other European countries have learned the error of their ways. Belgium has a museum devoted to its war crimes right in the middle of its capital city. The Germans have made remorse and shame about their past exploits part of the fabric of their society.

            Britain celebrates its war crimes though. It hasn’t learned. Britain thinks its empire was friendly and that those it robbed and exploited benefitted in some way. This is propaganda of the darkest kind. It takes a wilful disregard for morality and humanity to espouse these ideas and extreme stupidity to believe them.

    • joeblogs

      So you’re the one who pretends to go to the toilet, whilst trying to sneak through the restaurant kitchen to avoid paying the bill for the food you ate?

    • Twostime

      In the nicest possible way, fuck all the Tories, their devision, the pig f###er Cameron, the propaganda around brexit and Theresa May the hideous Windrush merchant of a “hostile environement”.

      Just so we’re clear about the fascist state we now live in.

      She is also a war criminal. See crimes in Syria.

      Wtf Tony?

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Why is being good looking a qualification to be PM?

      SURELY you want the classroom swot going through proposals with a razor sharp mind, then the rabble rouser inciting the mob if the other lot behave like yobboes?

      As Verhofstadt et al are bought off with money, not horny honey traps, being good looking is not much use….

  • Rod

    The Labour Party conference commences today and I understand John McDonnell will use it to make a speech indicating the intention of a future Labour government returning to the public sector those industries such as rail, water and other public utilities that are now held by private entities. I further understand he will address the subject of the likelihood that these privatised industries will be taken back under state control without the need to pay ‘compensation’ to the gamblers that invested in these enterprises.

    Well, good for him ! It should be regarded as a gamble and those ‘investors’ who have milked the British people for years will have eventually lost their bet as do most gamblers. They’ve had their profits in the past and been more than adequately compensated, so tough luck ! I’m just so fed up with the people of this nation having to bail out these ‘investors’ when things don’t work out as they expected and think that the country should absorb any of their losses.

    • Bayard

      Rod, of one thing you can be sure: the “gamblers” that lose out will only be the small private investor. The banks and the big investors will be safely renumerated for their “losses”. In fact they will most likely coming out ahead.

    • J Galt

      In the utterly unlikely event that he is in a position to enact his policy they’ll kill him first!

  • Sharp Ears

    On topic!

    The oleaginous Nick Robinson dominated today’s episode of Newswatch.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bkfyyg/newswatch-21092018

    1.40 in

    Samira Ahmed managed to include a dig about Robbie Gibb, ex BBC News head honcho and Robinson’s one time boss, now at Theresa’s side at No 10.

    [BBC Daily Politics editor Robbie Gibb to join No 10. The head of the BBC’s Westminster political programmes team has been named as Prime Minister Theresa May’s new director of communications. Robbie Gibb, who edits the Daily Politics, replaces Katie Perrior, who quit before the general election.6 Jul 2017
    BBC Daily Politics editor Robbie Gibb to join No 10 – BBC News
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40517721 ]

      • Sharp Ears

        That link is dead. It was a link from Note #4 on his Wikipedia page.

        This is the article https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/nick-robinson-northern-arsey-confrontational-416446.html

        and the paragraphs –

        ‘Robinson was about to start a politics, philosophy and economics degree at Oxford University when he went on a summer holiday in northern France with Will (Redhead) and their friend James Nelson. They were involved in a head-on car crash, which engulfed their vehicle in flames. Robinson was in the back seat and suffered severe burns but survived. Both his friends died. Until his death in 1994, Brian Redhead remained a mentor to Robinson and on one birthday gave him a copy of Tony Benn’s Arguments for Socialism.
        Despite the gift, Robinson’s early political leanings were to the right, and he became a national chairman of the Young Conservatives in 1986, the height of Thatcherism. Briefly he was known as “Blue Robbo”, a reference to Derek “Red Robbo” Robinson, a trade union firebrand of the Seventies.’

  • Sharp Ears

    Timing? As the Labour conference opens, there is an attempt to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. I wonder who’s behind it? 😉

    Jeremy Corbyn’s allies drawing up emergency plans amid fears he may be suspended over ‘undeclared trips’

    Save

    177

    Senior party sources have claimed that the proposals have been devised in the event that Mr Corbyn is found to have breached Parliamentary rules
    Harry Yorke, Political Correspondent Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor
    21 September 2018 • 9:30pm
    Follow

    ‘Allies of Jeremy Corbyn have drawn up “emergency leadership plans” amid fears that the Labour leader could be suspended over a series of alleged undeclared trips he took overseas, The Telegraph understands.

    Senior party sources have claimed that the proposals have been devised in the event that Mr Corbyn is found to have breached Parliamentary rules following an investigation by the standards watchdog.

    The plans, which are due to be put before the party’s governing body on Saturday, include a clause that would hand Labour’s national executive committee unprecedented powers to constrain the authority of Tom Watson, who would automatically become “caretaker” leader in Mr Corbyn’s absence.

    It follows…’….. paywall
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/21/jeremy-corbyns-allies-drawing-emergency-plans-amid-fears-may/

    and from Thursday night’s QT panellist, Camilla Tominey…. this tripe.

    Jeremy Corbyn’s journey from dejected outsider to idol of the Left is threatening to run out of momentum
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/21/jeremy-corbyns-journey-dejected-outsider-idol-left-threatening/

    Thank goodness for their paywall. Only one paragraph is shown.

    From her agent’s blurb. Enough said.
    ‘Camilla Tominey is Associate Editor for Politics and Royals at The Telegraph in London and a royal expert for the American television network NBC News and Nine Network Australia’s royal insider. She was formerly Political Editor, Royal Editor and columnist for the Sunday Express. She also frequently appears on ITV’s This Morning, Lorraine and Good Morning Britain. She has also recently appeared on Question Time on BBC One and Radio 4’s Any Questions? in her capacity as a member of the Westminster Lobby.

    • Charles Bostock

      “The plans, which are due to be put before the party’s governing body on Saturday, include a clause that would hand Labour’s national executive committee unprecedented powers to constrain the authority of Tom Watson, who would automatically become “caretaker” leader in Mr Corbyn’s absence.”

      Moving the goalposts, eh ? “Democracy” of the Corbyn left variety. Shameful !

  • Hatuey

    Not so long ago gullible fools were telling us that the trade imbalance with the EU would resolve everything, weakness is strength, and German car makers would bow to English terms.

    Those people are as stupid today as they were before, but they’re not as loud. Should we pity the fools who believed this or detest them?

    A few quid’s worth of vinyl on the side of a bus and the English march off a cliff…

    • Paul Greenwood

      German carmakers have zero influence now that the EU Parliament is tightening EU Emission Regulations from 2021 and Germany cannot meet them. EU Cartel Regulators aim to sue 5 German car manufacturers for breaching Competition Rules. This Sunday the Berlin regime must decide who is going to pay to fit SCR cats to Euro 5 Diesels – and the fate of Euro 4 diesels is basically Expropriation.

      Then the Court Rulings in Wiesbaden mean Diesel Car ban in cities in Hessen – Munich is next – Stuttgart and Hamburg already. 1.3 million diesel cars affected in Hessen with Election next month. 13 million Diesel Cars in Germany could be banned from the road without compensation. VW refuses to pay.

      That is before BreXit when a country importing 800,000 German cars each year……leaves. That is UK which produces BMW 3-Series engines in Hams Hall.

      Largest BMW factory in world is in South Carolina but now faces tariffs on exports to China – same with Mercedes. BMW has big new factory in Mexico for 3 Series which Trump is hitting with tariffs because it cannot meet local content at $16/hr rules.

      VW is now found to have falsified petrol engine emissions from 2011 by playing with A/C software to keep cat hot. Defeat Mechanisms everywhere.

      Merkel covered this cheating for over a decade depriving German tax revenues through fake fuel economy and fake emissions reports…….now customers are facing financial ruin.

      So…..German carmakers are history. They are going the way of German cameras.

  • Republicofscotland

    Sinn Fein declares that Israel is an apartheid state, a statement you’re unlikely to hear around the corridors of Westminster.

    “Irish Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile [Sinn Féin] called on the Irish Football Association (FAI) to withdraw from the upcoming games because they are to take place in Israel. ”

    “Speaking on Thursday with the Belfast Telegraph, Donnghaile claimed that “Israel is an apartheid state which is involved in the slaughter of Palestinian civilian”

    Well he is correct of course, why should an apartheid state be allowed to take part in any exterior events.

    https://m.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sinn-Fein-official-Israel-is-an-apartheid-state-567713

    Staying Israel, a paragon of democracy.

    “The leader of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has offered to place the embassy of his self-proclaimed state in Jerusalem, if Israel would recognize the renegade Serbian province as an independent country.”

    Well Kosovo, is recognised by some, but not by five EU members nor four Nato members, including the apartheid state of Israel.

    https://www.rt.com/news/439100-kosovo-israel-embassy-jerusalem/

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Kosovo

        • giyane

          Northern Ireland currently has no government. One of the reasons for this is that the politicians in Sinn Fein think they can use Brexit to force through a united Ireland. Mrs May very sensibly told the EU in Salzburg not to go there.

          What amazes me is that the business community that whizzes parts for motor cars across the channel all day has only just entered the Brexit debate now, when they should have told us what they were doing before the referendum. Perhaps they didn’t tell us because the carbon footprint of bringing milk from bankster capital owned farms in Poland or car parts multiple times is so horrendously wasteful.

          These bankster capitalists really are prepared to destroy the planet and British milk farmers for corporate profit. worship the Thatcher god of me, me, me. sacrifice anything from the world to the people of the world for profit. The whole Thatcher religion of me has to go. Trouble is, that would transfer power back to people from corporations. The corporate world is unable to cope with democracy exposing their greed and plunder so they’ve stayed shtum for 3 whole years.

          • Dom

            Thankfully that sensible Mrs May is deeply committed to fighting bankster capitalists and Thatcherism.

          • Republicofscotland

            “Northern Ireland currently has no government. One of the reasons for this is that the politicians in Sinn Fein think they can use Brexit to force through a united Ireland. ”

            Giyane.

            I have read articles which say the RoI, sees NI as a bit of financial basketcase at the moment, and unification of the two isn’t quite on the cards yet due that factor I think.

            As for Sinn Fein, they’re not the only ones holding back a proper government at Stormont. The DUP, of which Theresa May gave a £1 billion plus for their votes, are 100% intent on rejecting any EU or Westminster proposal for that matter, that sees NI outside UK regulations.

          • Paul Greenwood

            Best part is taking Scottish farmed salmon owned Norwegian corporations to Poland or Lithuania for filleting and packaging and back to UK……….I suppose Polish mushrooms travel on the same boat

    • Paul Greenwood

      Israel arms Kosovo just as it does Ukraine with some of the players like Poroschenko real name Valtsman no doubt holding Israeli passports…….like Kolomoisky his sponsor……..great passport to avoid extradition

      • Republicofscotland

        It has ben reported that Tar Ideals Concepts, an Israeli company, trained Myanmar Special Forces, and that Israel has sold weapons to the Myanmar.

        Lets not forget, UN reports, the Myanmar army is involved in systemic ethnical cleansing and war crimes against the Rohingya (a Muslim minority).

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile, in an attempt to negate the last rebel enclave.

    Russia and Turkey agreed on borders of the demilitarised zone around Syria’s Idlib, the demilitarised zone would help stop attacks from Idlib on Syrian army positions and Russia’s military bases in the region.

    On the subject of Syria Chuck Freilich, giving a quick Q&A with Sputnik. It comes across to me anyway, that Israel is petrified of Iran gaining a secure foothold in Syria.

    https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201809221068236167-russia-syria-crisis/

  • N_

    It’s sometimes hilarious how all the regime-linked journalists and commentators in Britain write their rubbish about their turdy regime’s negotiations with EU27. Writing as if no foreigner can understand the heaven of heavens called Britain, with its two great collegiate universities and its private schools and stuff, they talk (or used to talk) of how Theresa May’s declarations that she was preparing for a “WTO Brexit” spoke only of “a negotiating strategy”. If you were as clever as them you would understand what she was doing, they winked as if they were talking about the wrestling. Never mind that they didn’t get their journalistic positions through negotiations but because they knew someone, because of who their fathers were, and because they were utter careerist creeps throughout their time at university. None of these super-experts even dreamt that the same negotiating considerations might apply to the other side in the talks. And they still don’t. It’s all essentially “reality TV” for them, the stupid f*ckers.

    It’s not just politics that has been Trumpianised. The culture was Trumpianised beforehand. Have you ever heard of any poshboy regime journalist, Tory or liberal or social democrat, who considers that the EU27 representatives might be negotiating competently? Because I haven’t. The fawning lickspittle monarchist c***s’ attitude (and anybody who calls the country Britain by the name of its monarchist regime is a monarchist) wouldn’t have the guts. It’s never occurred to them. Applying the same principles when you think about foreigners as when you think about English people, with their Lord’s cricket ground and their three-line whips and stuff – are you taking the piss? As far as they’re concerned, what’s good for General Motors their shitty regime is good for “Europe”, and whoever doesn’t give them what they want is a foreigner, a traitor, or a chav. They spout syllogisms in posh accents but their assumptions show them to be as boneheadedly regime-loving as any raving Soviet Stalinist, German Nazi or mainstream Swedish politician or bureaucrat ever was. “We’re still the best country in the world”. Right?

    • joeblogs

      “We don’t want to fight, but by jingo if we do,
      We’ve got the men, we’ve got the guns, and we’ve got the munnay too!”
      (A lovely English ditty, sung by Cockney barrowboys – around the year 1905.)

      We do not have that money now, only currency – and johnny foreigner is telling us to wipe our ar5es with it ‘remember Maastricht’ they say.
      s Why are they being so horribly beastly to us, one says? /s

  • Republicofscotland

    German’s firms forced to leave Iran, over US sanctions. Trump reneged on the JCPoA deal with Iran, set up by Obama.

    However other EU JCPoA signatories such as Germany, France and the UK are attempting to persuade Trump (unsuccessfully) not to reimpose further sanctions. Businesses, are hoping to at least be granted waivers to do business in Iran.

    On the upside for Iran, I’d imagine Chinese and Russian businesses will fill the void left by EU companies. To the dismay of their EU counterparts.

    Of course EU businesses are to suffer, and ergo EU citizens, at the hands of a US president, who’s intent on protecting the interests of the apartheid state of Israel in the region.

    In short, EU jobs could be lost so that Israeli’s can sleep sound at night.

    https://www.dw.com/en/german-firms-lead-exodus-out-of-iran/a-45577191

    • Paul Greenwood

      So Europe needs to create its own banking System, own Money Transfer System, and Companies that do not do business with USA. However after 60 years the EU still buys Russian oil in US dollars not Euros.

      EU was supposed to develop wide and deep Capital Markets in Euros to compete with New York but has failed. The only reason Eurodollars exist in London is because Moscow Narodny Bank in 1950s placed its dollar holdings in London to avoid US threats and Merrill Lynch started lending them outside USA which is basis of London’s return to financial importance after WW2.

      The only way to resolve matters is an EU-China-Russia Payments Union and for Multinationals to split their US and ROW operations as separate legal entities

      • laguerre

        “So Europe needs to create its own banking System, own Money Transfer System,”

        So what, that is coming. Nobody can tolerate being held to ransom by Trumpian irrationality. But it doesn’t happen straight off. It takes time to get it going, and in between time Trump can hand out sanctions against anybody he likes (they’ll be against the EU soon, this year/next year). Efforts will have recently accelerated, because of Trump. Russian-Chinese system too. But the Yanks will fight it. Lose their monopoly position, they can’t take that.

        • Paul Greenwood

          It was necessary decades ago. Trump is not the first to use sanctions this way – Clinton did, Bush did……..EU has had a single currency since 1999 but used the US Dollar as intervention currency in much of its period under Snake and ERM. They have had 20 years to design a system instead of letting Deutsche Bank pile up horrendous US Dollar liabilities

  • Dave

    May is a clueless puppet of the deep state who are for Remain, not Brexit. She called an unnecessary general election with a rubbish campaign resulting in a hung parliament. Either she had no idea what she was doing or followed bad advice, i.e. clueless, but it seems to me she followed Remain advice intended to sabotage the government and Brexit.

    She then replaced two ‘one nation’ advisors (who took the blame) and then replaced a Brexit advisor (politician) with Remain advisor (civil servant) who said the Chequers deal was a goer (despite everyone saying it wasn’t), with the refrain being its Chequers or no deal!

    The EU said, as expected, stuff Chequers, meaning we’re left with no deal, except Parliament has a final vote on the outcome. So in a Remain Parliament no deal becomes Remain. Hence the civil servant’s (deep state) advice to promote Chequers (no doubt telling May the EU would agree) sabotages, as intended, Brexit leaving Remain.

    • giyane

      Dave

      Tories didn’t like Chequers because it had too many concessions to the EU. They are therefore completely irrelevant, just wetting themselves to get attention. The EU wants more concessions than May is able to get out of her team, because they wet themselves again as soon as she’s changed their clothes.

      The actual point of EU agreement already exists, in the form of free trade, free movement of people, goods and bankster lies. Popular racism is irrelevant. The only problem with the EU is and always has been that it wants to have a military and a monetary policy which is different from the UK’s interests and it will not listen to the UK. For some reason best known to themselves the Tories chose to talk only about ditching all the good stuff about the EU, instead of divorcing us from the Federal, bad side of the EU.

      • laguerre

        Oh yes, splendid national isolation, you can have it, but you’ll be out of a job. You’ll be well placed in the electrical industry.

        • giyane

          Laguerre

          I listened to a Scottish green energy company manager on R4 this week talking about operating from Holland? For now all it takes is one squeak from Mrs May about novilocks and Putin has eaten granny. One of the best things about Brexit so far has been dividing and ruling those whose job it is to divide and rule.

    • Paul Greenwood

      May is a clueless puppet. May is incompetent. May has no grasp of how the EU functions and writing gibberish in Die Welt only to read it out next day is imbecilic.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Actually the interesting question is whether they try ‘this shitty deal or remain’ as the choice in Parliament.

      At the very least it should be ‘this shitty deal or WTO’ as the first option and only if ‘this shitty deal’ is preferred should it be ‘this shitty deal or Remain’.

      Of course, Parliament is stuffed full of Remainers, so a negation of Referendum result is still on the table.

      What I want to know is the proposals of true Brexiteers to three key things post true Brexut:

      1) Do they want Uk as a vassal of US? (If they think we have little influence in Europe vs 26, we would have zilch in DC VS 50).
      2) DO they still think UK imperialism is a goer in NATO? (that ship has sailed, never to return).
      3) If all UK media is foreign owned, how does UK voice get heard? (it doesn’t).

      I have zero tolerance for ‘US good, EU bad’, ditto for ‘US good, EU BETTER!’

  • Republicofscotland

    Spain is to use Brexit, in an attempt to get the upperhand in negotiations surrounding Gibraltar.

    Meanwhile Spain has come under fire for using Blasphemy laws to imprison outspoken people. Many people are unfairly imprisoned, or executed around the globe in regimes who enforce the laws.

    “Democracies with blasphemy laws in statute are choosing to repeal these laws, including Denmark, Malta, Norway, Iceland, and France in the last three years. The governments of New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland have all started this process as well.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/20/spains-blasphemy-laws-stifle-freedom

    But its not all bad news from Spain.

    “The Spanish government will promote a European move to recognize Palestine as an independent state, Spain’s foreign minister said Thursday, adding that if the move fails the government will consider a Spain-only recognition.”

    “According to the Palestinian Authority, there are now 139 countries that recognize Palestine.”

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-spain-to-push-for-european-recognition-of-palestine-we-may-go-it-alone-if-that-fails-1.6491746

  • The 62%

    The majority of people in Scotland do not want to leave the EU.

    Even more ironic, that the majority of people in Northern Ireland do not want to leave the EU. Yet the Tories in England are arguing about the Irish border.

    Better to try to reform the EU when within it, rather than as an island outside it.

    • MJ

      The majority of Scots voted to remain in the UK. That’s why they were entitled to participate in the UK-wide referendum regarding the UK’s membership of the EU. Of course there were regional differences in the vote, it would be surprising if there were not.

      I imagine that many Scots concluded that it was better to try to reform the UK from within it rather than be a feeble and powerless territory on its margins.

      • Paul Greenwood

        Not true. The referendum vote in Scotland included Non-Scots and excluded Scots living in England or Wales or N Ireland.

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      Your call yesterday for mass demonstrations has merit. Not so sure about waiting ’till a instinctively cautious Scottish Government makes the call. Turn the Edinburgh AUOB demo on the 6th Oct, into a show of force. Get the Euro flags flying next to the saltires.

    • N_

      The fact that if Brexit happens then most people in Northern Ireland only have to go to a post office and fill in a form to claim their Republic of Ireland citizenship, thereby remaining EU citizens – this is if they haven’t already got Irish passports – is little mentioned in the British media.

      The position could be that if two British guys, one from Belfast and one from London, arrive in Calais on the ferry from Dover, the person from Belfast can go through the EU (EEA + Switzerland) immigration channel with few formalities, whereas his mate from London has to go through the “Rest of World” channel and meet far more stringent requirements as to what he’s allowed to bring in.

        • Herbie

          Northern Ireland peeps can get two passports at the moment, Irish and British. Best of both worlds.

          • Charles Bostock

            Paolo Boscoverde

            It is very clear, for the simple reason that it is the members states themselves who determine whether or not dual nationality is possible. This question is not addressed by EU legislation, nor indeed does the EU have the Treaty power to address it. Gamma minus.

      • James

        In 2002, during the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Taoiseach issued potassium iodide tablets citizens of the Republic by post. This was DSMA noticed at the time in UK, for obvious reasons. Much goes unreported, ’twas ever thus, and really it was none of “our” business.
        [This was a response to scaremongering about “putative” attacks by aircraft on Sellafield’s reactor dome. Although it was true the prevailing winds would disburse the iodine 131 so released westwards, the rest of the solicitations were in fact false. The spherical topology of the dome implied that a breach of its core by this kind of attack vanishingly improbable. It cost no more than sending out BBC license fee letters, was kept nice and low key, and is now forgotten as an irrelevance. Other than paradoxically on here!]

        • Kempe

          The BBC doesn’t appear to have got the notice.

          http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2053301.stm

          The exercise cost €630,000 (for a population just under 5 million) and the pills expired in 2005. The Irish government have said they won’t be doing it again.

          Incidentally I think the prevailing winds blow in the opposite direction. Remember the widespread contamination of Cumbria after the fire in the 1950s.

          • James

            Top Google action there, Kempe, I incorrectly believed it went unreported!
            Mine was a vague recollection from personal experience. I must have been back at work (out of UK), and out of that loop when the restriction was lifted. I suppose it was a bit wishful to try to keep a lid on it for long, given the traffic. It was all rather a storm in a teacup, and inconsequential to the public purse, as you (and I) point out.
            There certainly was a “prevailing wind” argument at the time, though again I defer to your superior Googling skills. It was probably, like the rest of the arguments, entirely specious.
            I was not directly involved in any of it, but knew someone quite well who was. My point about stuff going (largely) unreported was perhaps a somewhat weak reply to N_’s comment.

          • James

            On further reflection (and on the basis of your statistics), that’s a bit cheap for the postage and the pills. I stand further corrected by your Googling, and concur it cost considerably less than a Capita BBC license fee threatening letter, “To the Legal Occupier”. It sounds as if it was not widely rolled out. Google away, and inform please. I’m somewhat curious about this now.

          • Kempe

            Other search engines are available.

            I’d forgotten about it until you reminded me. It would’ve been stupid and pointless for the British government to have tried to prevent reporting of the issue as it was widely reported by the Irish media online.

            This source quotes the cost but it’s not clear if the €630,000 was just the cost of the pills or covered the cost of distribution as well. There are about 1.6 million households in Ireland which works out at 40c each which is exceedingly cheap.

            http://www.thejournal.ie/iodine-tablets-wont-be-sent-out-again-2157770-Jun2015/

          • James

            Thanks for the reply Kempe. This has aroused my interest more than expected. I too had forgotten about it, and have no clue why reading N_’s comment reminded me of it.
            I did not hear about it through reading the news, as I thought I’d made clear in my comments. I despair that my writing is so unclear, and apologies.
            I heard about it in early 2002 from some “colleagues” from Hanslope Park; we were discussing this and a number of other post 9/11 attack scenarios. [I don’t work in that “department”, but was at post with diplomatic status. They had come out to put thick plastic on the windows for bombproofing, another post 9/11 precaution, and we were out having a few jars, if you must know!] It was my understanding that the intention was to attempt to keep the Irish government’s decision out of the news, and I assumed the D notice would be issued. It may have been then retracted for the obvious reasons, or indeed it may never have been approved at all (for the same obvious reasons).I have no idea which.
            I never saw or heard of it on any news, although I wasn’t looking, and I was living in Belgrade then China at that time. I did not come back to UK until 2005. I recall talk of the prevailing winds, and particularly the ballistics of the impact (which interests me more than meteorology). In fact I recall an awful lot more now, come to think about it, some rather “juicy”. [Not here, for more obvious reasons]
            I see from Googling it (actually DuckDuckGo) there was/has been a lot in the Irish press as you say, and unsurprisingly. I can’t see much in the UK press, though. I’m still curious about the cost of the exercise, your 40c per dom seems way too low. I guess it was limited to households around Dublin and the East side, but still seems rather “good value”.

        • Paul Greenwood

          Belgium has done the same around Aachen because of its errant population and nuclear reactors.

          Unless you drink lots of milk you may be iodine deficient anyway

      • MJ

        “EU citizens”

        Even the EU hasn’t yet become so overwheening. Countries are members of the EU, not individuals. The latter remain citizens of the member country. That may change of course.

        • Charles Bostock

          Incorrect. There is, legally, such a thing as EU citizenship

          I refer you to Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which provides that:

          “Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship.”

          • Iain Stewart

            Thank you, Charles, for pointing out one of the elementary facts which seem to elude some of those who comment here on the European Union with only a vague notion of what it is.
            Coming soon:
            “Oh Lord, we didnae ken!” And God in his infinite mercy will look down and say, “Weel, ye ken noo.” (Abridged.)

  • N_

    Tesco’s new cheapo “Jack’s” stores will have Union Jacks on 80% of their products.

    Their first two stores opened in Chatteris (Cambridge Fenland) and Immingham (Lincolnshire), two areas where there has been very strong support for UKIP.

    Something else is going on here, with the whole “Jack’s” effort. It’s not just called “Jack’s” because that was Tesco founder Jack Cohen’s first name. The company is trying to rev up nationalistic fervour among poor white British people.

    Unlike at some of the big Tesco-branded stores (and Sainsbury ones too) the car parks at Jack’s (if they have car parks) probably won’t have black-skinned slave labourers washing windscreens either. Oops…did I just spill the beans about supermarkets and slave labour?

    • giyane

      N_

      Tesco are famous for poor marketing skills. Many British people will boycott Jacks because of its imperial and pro-semitic connotations. It’s their money, they can waste it if they want to on a Zionist wet-dream.

      • N_

        The “co” in “Tesco” comes from Jack Cohen’s surname.

        Most of the marketing of a company like that is aimed at existing customers. At the cutting edge Tesco has stomped into schools, taken trade from opticians, pharmacists, clothing retailers, ex-Woolworths, and newsagents. They didn’t manage to set up estate agencies and legal services for some reason. I don’t know what happened, but the solicitors’ cartel and the estate agents’ one (the latter being dominated by insurance interests) may have stopped them.

        Similarly the lawyers stopped the rise of “commonhold” in England and Wales which would have led to too many people living in flats freeing themselves from big-time property rip-offs. (“Here’s your annual maintenance bill – that will be £20K”.) Solicitors wouldn’t work for parties who were trying to sell or buy commonholds and they killed the idea off.

        Practically the whole of London has been Rachmanised but no-one in the mainstream dare think or say it.

        Recently having turned on a hotel TV set because there was nothing else to do, I watched a programme in which “terrible tenants” were put on the same level as “rogue landlords”. One segment was filmed from the point of view of a landlady who had clearly forced a mentally-challenged guy to sign his house over to her about 10 years ago on the understanding that he would pay a small rent, which he hadn’t paid, and she wanted the house off him – what a hero she was. What many middle class people don’t understand is that property gangs target people who own properties and who are a bit simple-minded, who don’t know what they’re signing, etc. – and such gangs always involve solicitors and banks.

        Another segment was shot from the point of view of a bureaucrat from the council – health and safety, blah blah – who shut down a squalid property where several tenants were living in filthy, dangerous, overcrowded conditions and where the landlord also lived, but he didn’t appear on film. (Obviously a moneylender would also have been involved.) Viewers were supposed to think that pasting a notice on the door ordering the tenants to leave was “helping” them. The bureaucrat even said to the camera that some people would think he was chucking people out, but how he saw it was that he was “saving lives”.

        So in both the overall idea of the programme (bad tenants and bad landlords supposedly being similar) and in what was conveyed in each of these two segments, the actual real plight of poor people getting crapped on (whether they are tenants or owner-occupiers) was obscured. The real meaning of being chucked out on the street didn’t come across at all.

        Such are the times we live in.

        The above can serve as a test in how well people have understood Edward Bernays 🙂

    • Republicofscotland

      “Something else is going on here, with the whole “Jack’s” effort. ”

      You’re correct N, the mostly like outcome of this Union Jackery, is to weaken and eventually remove the Protected Geographical Status of UK produce once we leave the EU.

      Such as the Cornish pasty or Dundee cake or say Scotch whisky or Scottish Salmon etc. Which would allow other inferior products to use similar labelling.

      Currently PGS produce is protected under European law, however that could all change after Brexit.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_food_and_drink_products_with_protected_status

      • Twostime

        Surely “Jacks” is just nationalist bollocks Ros.

        Think we may have more to worry about than
        “Protected Geographical Status of UK produce once we leave the EU.” Come April 1st.

        I like cheese wherever it’s from and I doubt Craig worries too much about the PGS of his “scotch”

          • James

            Never buy “Old Hopking” rum from Aldi. That really is a diabolical, almost surgical confection of ethanol, caramel and quite probably a little methanol, propanol and higher homologues. I tried to disguise it as a weak punch, but it had no takers. I topped up the bottle with water, and took it back for a refund, and successfully to my surprise.
            Do not buy this, it is hanging filth. I should have known better; for most Germans, rum is something you use to macerate fruit (Rumtopf), and the pot rum (eg Stroh) is “total grausam beschissene Scheisse” as a beverage.
            AVOID ALDI OLD HOPKING RUM

    • J Galt

      Won’t be long before they start an anti-German theme to get at “too European” Lidl and Aldi!

        • Rhys Jaggar

          Tesco’s was the original ‘pile em high, sell em cheap’ food store.

          In the 1980s they went middle class. And Polish.

          They just realise that for poor folks, they have a budget and if you are too expensive, they cannot buy. Not will not, cannot.

          Get rid of the rip off packaging, never ending gimmicks and just sell some flaming food fit to be eaten.

          • Charles Bostock

            Jaggar

            “n the 1980s they went middle class. And Polish.”

            Waddya mean “and Polish” ? Please expand.

      • glenn_nl

        Good thing nothing is ever “too American” for us. They don’t even really count as foreigners, do they?

        • Republicofscotland

          Indeed, after eating at MacDonalds, and picking up your kids from their Prom Night, who say it was Awsome. You head home and watch an American movie.

          Or maybe not.

        • Blunderbuss

          I find Americans more foreign than anybody else. I think they are extra-terrestrials. It’s no surprise that most of the UFOs land in America.

      • Sharp Ears

        ‘The individual groups were originally owned and managed jointly by the brothers. Karl Albrecht, who died in 2014, retained ownership of Aldi Süd with a personal wealth of €17.2 billion that made him the richest man in Germany. The co-owners of Aldi Nord, Berthold and Theo Albrecht Jr. came close behind at €16 billion.’
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi
        _____
        ‘Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG formerly Schwarz Unternehmenstreuhand KG, is a German global discount supermarket chain, based in Neckarsulm, Germany, that operates over 10,000 stores across Europe and the United States. It belongs to Dieter Schwarz, who also owns the store chains Handelshof and hypermarket Kaufland.
        Lidl is the chief competitor of the similar German discount chain Aldi in several markets, including the United States. There are Lidl stores in every member state of the European Union, except Latvia and Estonia. Lidl stores are also present in Switzerland, Serbia and the USA.’ Wikipedia.

        No Working Time Directive for their managers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl#Reflective_inquiry
        Read on. Terrible. Amazon similar.

    • Ken Kenn

      If I remember correctly Immingham was the port where Polish coal ( Poland was not in the EU then ) was brought in to the UK to break break the NUM strike.

      A very patriotic lot in Immingham I hear.

      That and the billions borrowed by Thatcher from some Middle Eastern Prince who’s name I’ve forgot to replce coal fuel with expensive oil for the power station furnaces.

      Thatcher was just as patriotic as the Immingham constituents too remember.

      It appears we still have a load of similarly patriotic people who still vote alongside the current Conservative or UKIP (new Conservative ) representatives of today.

      First refuge of the Tory/UKIP scoundrel is patriotism.

      It still works though – doesn’t it?

      52% to 48%.

  • Blunderbuss

    “The fawning lickspittle monarchist c***s’ attitude (and anybody who calls the country Britain by the name of its monarchist regime is a monarchist) wouldn’t have the guts”.

    Did you mean Windsor or Saxe Coburg Gotha?

    • MJ

      Gawd knows. I had to do a word search to find the incoherent rant where that particular piece of nonsense originated.

    • N_

      I mean “the United Kingdom”. That’s a monarchist regime, not a country.

      Countries: France, Germany, Britain.
      Regimes: Fifth Republic, Federal Republic, United Kingdom.

      • MJ

        The term “British” only refers the inhabitants of Great Britain, the largest of the British Isles. To include N Ireland the term “United Kingdom” must be used. If the UK ceased to be a monarchy but its constituent parts remained as one then of course a new name would be required.

        • N_

          Wrong. The term “British” includes the inhabitants of Northern Ireland. Ask Arlene Foster.

          The UK cannot cease to be a monarchy. It is a monarchy. It can be replaced with a republic. It is exactly the same as in say France. France is a country. The current regime is the Fifth Republic. If that is replaced with another republic or a monarchy then the regime will be the Sixth Republic or the Kingdom of France.

          • N_

            In any case, this is not just a discussion about “correct” terminology. Calling a country by the name of its regime is obviously extremely politically loaded. Those at the top of the opinion chain who get most people to do this don’t do it because they “think it’s correct”. They do it to make the filthy monarchy look as natural as the hills and the rivers.

          • MJ

            “The term “British” includes the inhabitants of Northern Ireland. Ask Arlene Foster”

            It’s probably because there is no orthodox adjective pertaining to “UK” (UKish?) and she can’t bring herself to use the word “Irish” or even “Northern Irish”.

          • frankywiggles

            The north of Ireland is not in Britain, never was, no matter how much big Arlene wishes otherwise.

          • SA

            The full name of this country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, often shortened to United Kingdom (U.K.) Or Great Britain, but whichever way N- unfortunately we have to use monarchist terms because the current regime is a monarchy with trappings of democracy.

        • Charles Bostock

          Paul Boisvert

          Incorrect yet again.

          International treaties and agreements are signed by the UK as follows :

          “For Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

          The names of the signatory/signatories then follow.

          It would be good if you could check your comments for factual accuracy before posting them.

  • Patrick Mahony

    Theresa May seems to lack the understanding “her country” has already been broken up by the creation of the Republic of Ireland. Dublin was just as much a British city 100 years ago as Belfast.
    Either she doesn’t know other British PMs have done what she thinks unthinkable, or she doesn’t recognise RoI as a real country.

      • Republicofscotland

        Actually New York was captured from the Dutch by and English fleet in 1665. It not named after the city of York, but after the Duke of York, later King James II.

    • Paul Greenwood

      Not true….Dublin had a completely different character from Belfast constitutionally………Dublin only spent 120 years in the United Kingdom….now it is a component of another empire

  • Sharp Ears

    The bidders for ownership of Sky are Comcast and 21st Century Fox (ie Murdoch). The takeover panel have decided that they can make bids for it in a round of three. How strange.

    21st Century Fox and Comcast prepare final bids in battle for Sky
    One of the most unpredictable and lucrative takeover battles the City has ever seen is reaching its climax.
    02:18, UK,
    Saturday 22 September 2018

    The battle for ownership of Sky has been a long oner
    Half of the City will be working this weekend. The other half wishes it was.
    Legions of highly-paid lawyers and bankers will be advising American film and TV firm 21st Century Fox and US cable giant Comcast as they prepare to table bids in an auction that will decide the future of Sky plc, the owner of Sky News.
    Behind Fox are investment banks Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan, plus the Wall Street specialist advisory firm CenterView.
    Law firms Allen & Overy, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom, and Simpson Thacher and Bartlett are also on board, plus PR companies Brunswick and Portland.
    21st Century Fox has been tipped to come out on top
    Advising Comcast, meanwhile, are the Mayfair-based specialist advisory firm Robey Warshaw and investment bankers from Evercore, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo.
    Law firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are also on the ticket, as is the PR house Tulchan.
    For its part, Sky is being advised by Morgan Stanley, Barclays and PJT Partners, the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, and the PR firm Finsbury, with advisory fees from the takeover battle expected to reach an eye-popping total of £580m.
    That, though, is only part of the story.

    /
    https://news.sky.com/story/21st-century-fox-and-comcast-prepare-final-bids-in-battle-for-sky-11504804

    No show without Goldman Sachs. See how many vultures are at the feast.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Can there be any better evidence of the world’s crappy state than Donald Trump chairing and leadomg meetings of the UN General Assembly and Security Security whose discussions will include more sanctions on Iran? How about a naval blockade for terrorism until it surrenders?

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