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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    • Anon1

      No need for an escape plan. Assange should simply walk out of the embassy as he promised he would do if Bradley Manning was released.

      • Charles Bostock

        Yes, that was yet another example of a gigantic bluff having been called. No wonder Julian is a role model for so many.

      • pretzelattack

        and then simply get rendered to the u.s. by the british poodles or their swedish counterparts.

  • N_

    UKIP’s “interim manifesto” proposes

    * the abolition of stamp duty
    * the abolition of inheritance tax
    * the segregation of Muslim prisoners who try to convert non-Muslims
    * proportional representation (options to be discussed)

    Oh and they rant against “Cultural Marxism”.

    At least they oppose “compulsory LGBT-inclusive relationships education” in primary schools, which they say is due to be introduced from Sep 2019. (Is it actually true that current law makes it compulsory? If so, how is that imposed on private schools given that they don’t have to follow the national curriculum?)

    • N_

      The Labour manifesto last year had 11 references to the “transgender” identity, and as far as I am aware it made no reference at all to heterosexuality or to relations between two people of opposite sexes (which, smartphone users may like to recall, is where we all come from).

      Those who imagine themselves looking back in a few years’ time on these sorry times should remember that on the BBC’s programme “Question Time” shortly before the EU referendum the main person speaking for Leave was a normal-looking chap in a suit (Nigel Farage) and the main person arguing for Remain was a man wearing lipstick and a pink beret (Eddie Izzard).

      • N_

        Will the EU sanction Romania if the country votes in next month’s referendum to define marriage as between a man and a woman?

        • Charles Bostock

          That risk is why Romania will join Poland (and perhaps the Czech and Slovak Republics) to veto any attempt by the European Council to impose meaningful sanctions on Hungary (loss of voting rights, etc…)

        • uncle tungsten

          Will the EU guarantee an equal wage and living wage to all regardless of gender or gender preference? For me that is the only question. It is a dignified, egalitarian, survivalist society where individual rights are founded on distribution of wealth as well as all other priviples.

      • Patmur

        I don’t know the breadth and knowledge of Eddie Izzard’s politics, I would imagine not very deep. So the very fact that they pitted him as a spokesman for Remain against Nigel Farage for Leave demonstrates the inbuilt bias against Remain shown by most of the media. Having said that Nigel Farage is great at attacking Poles, the French or the European Parliament (knowing that he would receive enthusiastic applause from the “British” media), but one saw the cut of the man when he was asked about the dreadful terror attacks in Paris at the Bataclan and the Jewish supermarket. He was suddenly overcome by a bad case of the shakes and was unable to say much at all.

        Basically, during the referendum it was almost de rigour in the media that anyone speaking for Remain was either someone wearing a burka or in some other way entirely atypical. The hatred against EU expats was an absolute disgrace. It was racist abuse which would have caused a scandal and sackings had it been directed against migrants from Africa and Asia.

      • laguerre

        “The Labour manifesto last year had 11 references to the “transgender” identity, and as far as I am aware it made no reference at all to heterosexuality or to relations between two people of opposite sexes”

        Nice to see bigotry. There are references to transgender because that’s the problem of the moment, even if I think it’s excessive. Do heterosexual couples have a problem which needs to be addressed?

      • Jude D

        Julie Bindel had a good article in the Telegraph yesterday about the Transgender ideology – and how left has bowed to it (so has the right – but that’s another day’s work). Funny how most feminists (both male and female) are suddenly ok with men having the right to invade women’s showers, changing rooms, toilets etc. If one didn’t know better one might even suspect that all their guff about women’s liberation was really part of broader capitalist strategy to force women into working outside the home – whether they wished to or not. We can’t forget the strong connections between the CIA and the feminist movement.

    • Anon1

      Yeah they teach all this stuff to kids now. It’s normal for two men to have a child. Normal to question your gender “identity” as a child and “identify” as something you biologically are not. Its not only tolerated but taught and encouraged. If you don’t want your kids indoctrinated with all this stuff then you’re a hate criminal. Better to educate your children privately if you can.

      What I would like to know is when did the rot set in, who is responsible for it and what is the purpose of it all?

      • joeblogs

        Anon1:
        Read “The Edge of the Abyss”, a book by Alfred Noyes, published in 1942.
        His first sentence in the introduction, reads:
        “It would be a tragedy if the very thing we are fighting against (Nazi ideology) were to be foisted on us under another name.”
        This explains in full, without having to name names, when the rot set in, who is responsible and the purpose of it all.

      • JOML

        Anon1, what school do your children go to or are you talking from your own experience? If you’re just making statements from afar, you could be mistaken for a bigot.

      • Salford Lad

        The purpose of it all is to demolish the European Judeo- Christian tradition and the indigenous people of Europe. The European race is heading for extinction, with birth-rates at 1,2/family. The immigration of peoples from the Middle East and Africa.with birthrates of 6/7 children /family means the Europeans will be a minority in their own lands in a generation’
        Economic pressure are also adding to the demise of the family. , It takes both parents working to support a modern lifestyle. With childcare so expensive, it is not financially viable to have large families.
        Promotion of LGBT undermines the traditional family unit, which has been the basis for community cohesion and stability for centuries.

        • JOML

          Salford Lad, I suspect your views are a polar opposite of Jesus. Funny that when you appear to be concerned with Christian traditions…. at Heavens gates, Europeans enter here… Africans and others queue up for the bus and you’ll go elsewhere?

          • Anon1

            Let’s see if we can clear this up in Jesus’ own words:

            “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.”

            John 10:1

          • JOML

            Doesn’t clear anything up for me, Anon1. Didn’t realise Jesus spoke English, although I’ve heard that many believe that God speaks English – but that can’t be the God that prefers some middle eastern races / religions over others e.g. Gods from the Far East, the Americas, etc.
            It’s all so confusing when you get into mumbo jumbo.
            PS. My understanding was that Jesus was an inclusive dude, where as you and others on here appear to be exclusive dudes – can’t really be a Jesus follower and exclusive? ?

          • J

            JOML: To be fair, as a carpenter Jesus probably did put up a few fences and gates in his early career. But he didn’t seem that keen on money lenders even though he advised people to pay their taxes. He also said it was easier to thread a needle through the arse of a camel than to show a rich man the way to his conscience.

          • Paul Greenwood

            My understanding was that Jesus was an inclusive dude,

            Funny, because according to The Bible he was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi with tzitzits on his robes and Torah-observant.

            Always funny to hear from people who are clueless and have never understood that the first 7 leaders of the Christian church were Jews and that Sabbath was on Saturday and the first 70 years Christians met in synagogues…….the Romans moved the Sabbath to Sunday.

            Jesus was EXCLUSIVE……..Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

        • Mr Shigemitsu

          “Promotion of LGBT undermines the traditional family unit…”

          Do you seriously think that anyone, ever, ‘became’ LGBT due to it being “promoted” as a type of sexuality?

          If so, then who, where, when, and, crucially, how?

          • James

            Excellency
            If I might make so bold, sir, but does not the undermining depend on the precise nature of that “promotion”? It is hard to conceive that any meaningful or durable conversion to this most personal and private of credos could ever be achieved by “promotion”, so as ever, excellency, you are correct.
            I think perhaps SalfordLad had some idea of things being rammed down the throats of the unwilling, a kind of hakike. For him to enlarge upon.
            Of course this is all very much a passing fad for what in the Anglosphere passes as “political correctness”,and as in all things, will become passé quite soon.

      • Patmur

        Who knows, two men (or two women) may make better parents sometimes than a man and a woman. It depends on which male couple or which male/female couple. We will only know once we see the results. I was in Australia once and read in a newspaper about custody of the children being given to a gay couple. After criticism the judge said that he sees people coming before him on a daily basis resulting from straight families, and he said it was quite frankly ludicrous to say that it is best in every case for custody to be given to a straight couple over a gay one.

      • uncle tungsten

        Thanks Anon1 but transgender lessons in schools are fine and mainly harmless. What isn’t fine is that transgender lessons have a priority over lessons in capital and wealth and the distribution of same. In my view the teaching of the latter is vital core curriculum and the former an important social science discussion point. Recently a pre teen was affirming their positon on transgender to me and in my response I asked if such people should receive equal wages and a living wage.

        The child expressed full agreement AFTER we had a long discussion on what those two terms meant. They were not taught in any lesson nor discussed in any context at the school. The child raised those issues at next opportunity and was shut down in class but a lively debate followed during break.

    • Sharp Ears

      I heard some of Batten’s speech. Low key and lacklustre. More like a factory manager trying to increase the workers’ output. Racist too.

      UKIP leader Gerard Batten links sexual grooming of girls to Islam
      Gerard Batten claims the religion’s ideology legitimises “sex slaves” and stands by his description of Islam as a “death cult”.
      https://news.sky.com/story/ukip-leader-gerard-batten-links-sexual-grooming-of-girls-to-islam-11503909

      PS Theresa May is making a statement from No 10 at 1.45. I can’t wait. I am so excited. Not.

      • Anon1

        You can’t be racist against an ideology. Islam has adherents from every race. What you can do is attempt to shut down criticism of an ideology by calling it racism.

          • Rhys Jaggar

            Why do you think ME is at war if not for Shia, Sunni and Wahhabi differences?

            Sure the west is stoking them, but it is just like Protestants and Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists, Baptists and Episcopalians.

          • MJ

            Because Western interests want to control it.

            Your question however does demonstrate that there is indeed not a single Islamic ideology.

          • Night Warbler

            Rhys Jagger, humans will always find a way to justify their disagreements with ideology and religion, but I believe that the disagreements are nearly always primarily over land and/or resources. The ideology/religion is just an attempt to justify your cause and entitlement as being superior to that of your opponent/enemy.

        • laguerre

          “You can’t be racist against an ideology. Islam has adherents from every race. ”

          But it’s mainly racism, because most Muslims are brown people.

          • Anon1

            To think you teach in a university…

            Actually on second thoughts it makes perfect sense that you teach in a university.

          • Charles Bostock

            But, Anon1, don’t forget it’s a French university.

            Are there any French universities in the Shanghai Top 100?

          • Patmur

            That’s not true actually. Apart from the fact that Muslims in south eastern Europe are white, as are a lot in central Asia, many also in the Levant are (look no further than Assad and his wife – they could hardly be described as anything but white) you also now get the white converts – the worst in my view.

          • Tom Welsh

            What’s your problem? Laguerre demonstrates the ability to think logically and consistently, which does fit in with teaching at a university. Well, in France anyway.

        • N_

          Yes, hopefully it will be. She has been by far the most incompetent prime minister for more than half a century. Her main achievements are: er, er, she hasn’t had any.

          • Charles Bostock

            With the exception of Margaret Thatcher, it’s quite difficult to name any recent PM who has achieved much (certainly from the point of view of his own party and constituency).
            Harold Wilson – devaluation and economic crisis
            Edward Heath – 3 day week and high inflation
            j. Callaghan – very high nflation and the winter of discontent; ushered in M. Thatcher
            John Major – agreed the Maastricht Treaty; ushered in Tony Blair

            Need I go on?

      • N_

        Theresa May will probably say it’s “no deal”. Has Jeremy Corbyn said yet that Remain will be preferable to “no deal”?

        I wonder how the markets will react to Theresa May’s announcement, what with today being triple witching day in the derivatives markets. She’s timing it for just before New York opens.

        • MJ

          “Has Jeremy Corbyn said yet that Remain will be preferable to “no deal”?”

          Nope and nor will he. His manifesto depends on the UK being out of the EU.

      • charming

        he’s right about the ‘death cult’ can’t walk into a church without seeing corpses nailed to the walls

    • Rhys Jaggar

      That is an interesting interim manifesto with some obvious glaring inconsistencies.

      1) Saying schools are taking the place of parents but not asking who provides surrogate parenting for large numbers of children growing up with absent, substandard or inadequate parents. Given the emotional illiteracy and sexually repressed state of huge numbers of parents, claiming they are suitable people to educate children about sex is a joke of the worst order. The current denouement will be entrenched and get worse. Competent parents will engage anyway with their children. Incompetent ones will not…..taking school out of equation abandons the least fortunate children to whatever fate decrees is their lot.
      2) Complaining about waste but waving through Trident on the nod. What an unbelievably stupid and cretinous abrogation of responsibility, not to mention financial illiteracy. Micro nukes are modern technology, elephantine numbers of MAD weapons is just nonsense of the highest order. And Trudent is just a bung to US mafia warlords.
      3) Having a visceral hatred of EU but somehow thinking NATO is better. NOTHING will change in terms of overseas wars if we stay in NATO. The Americans will not change and we cannot change them. If UKIP are serious about not being US bum boys, they need to consider seriously why NATO still exists. They must do so with independent minds…..
      4) Obsessional hatred of HS2 without ever showing an understanding of its merits and the fact costs are spread over 15-20 years. If UKIP THINK they can install infrastructure for electric cars for £100bn, they should think again. They should promote driverless taxis from home to HSR nodes instead. Instead they want to abolish HS2 whilst ‘promoting regional airports’. We’ll: Birmingham and Manchester will benefit hugely from HS2, WITH 1 hour or less connection to central London creating a cogent offer for international flights landing outside Heathrow. If they want to minimise internal flights into Heathrow HS2 SHOULD be extended to Scotland, not abolished.

      More could be said, but there is also a lot in there that makes a lot of sense, so I suggest people have a read of it.

      Calling it interim does suggest they are opening the airwaves for feedback, after all.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Nice to see that bitchy woman with her Little England approach with a touch of Russophobic covert operations get stuffed by the French and Eu Presidents.

    • Patmur

      Effectively she went to Salzburg with yet another proposal which if accepted would in essence mean the end of the EU. She knew when she went they would not be accepted as the EU has been saying that for the last month (though the British media somehow missed that). She knows why it is unacceptable to the EU. Actually, it is not the EU being disrespectful to the British but the other way round. Britain is at liberty to leave the EU without any negotiations at all next March, but she has no right to expect of them that because the British want to leave that the whole EU should be abolished.

  • Republicofscotland

    As Britain’s good ally Saudi Arabia looks set to become the third member of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Saudi Arabia is intent on executing a female human rights activist, who campaigned for equal rights for Shia Muslims.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxIYV6eLH1s

    We all know why the west turns a blind eye to such nefarious actions in Saudi Arabia. But we tolerate it anyway.

    • Paul Greenwood

      They are terrified of Shia because they are the dominant population where Saudi oilfields are found………I think her brother is also in prison. She is the one that Canada voiced support for and ended up alone with no Western allies when Saudi retaliated

    • giyane

      Is her crime being female, human, Shi’a, wanting rights, or being an activist. The Sods idea that everyone will do as they’re told is opposed to all of those things, so I suppose they haven’t much of a skill-set of alternative approaches. Never would occur to them that she might be or become a better Muslim than themselves.
      Nobody with this kind of pride will go to paradise.

  • Hatuey

    For Assange, we need let’s say twenty people that look very like him, blonde hair, pale face, etc. Shouldn’t be too difficult to arrange. Have them arrive at the embassy with wigs on, wash out dye, fake beards etc., disguise the fact that they look like Assange when they go in.

    Then at a given point they all leave the embassy looking like Assange, one from this exit, 2 from around the back, etc. Watch the commotion. Then real Assange then leaves dressed as al qaeda. The British stablishment will either ignore him completely or offer him free guns and money… take both and gtf.

    Something like that…

  • Blunderbuss

    SKRIPALS

    Could somebody get a writ of Habeas corpus requiring the government to produce the Skripals?

  • N_

    Just to be clear: “no deal” means a hard Irish border. Try selling that to your backers if you’re Arlene Foster.

        • Rhys Jaggar

          They seem to have allowed millions of non-EU migrants in the past two years.

          But the odd bit of English people in NI is cause for a Trump wall to save the Irish and British from each other?

          • isa

            Rhys, Ireland has 4.7 million population so clearly Ireland did not let millions of people in.

            People in NI have both British and Irish citizenship in many cases and it is not a simple matter to resolve, at all. A hard border will bring many problems, if only the idiots in the DUP could stop to think.

          • Jude D

            Isa – the official population of Ireland and the real population are two very very different things. I know this because I worked on the 2002 Irish census. The number of census forms filled in by Chinese immigrants was next to zero – yet even in 2002 Chinese were a highly visible presence on the streets of Ireland – and working in shops, pubs, hotels etc. And that was well before the huge migrant surge to Ireland in mid to late noughties.

        • Patmur

          If they don’t then the single market would be destroyed. That’s why Theresa May has no respect, none whatsoever.

      • Andyoldlabour

        @MJ,
        It seems to me that it is the EU and RoI leader who want to enforce the hard border option, in order that the UK backs out of Brexit.
        There is no hard border between Norway and Sweden and Norway is not in the EU.

        • MJ

          I’m not aware that the Irish want to enforce a hard border (that would be economic suicide) but, being members of the EU they don’t have much say over their own country. The situation is more likely to drive Ireland out of the EU than drive the UK back in.

          Sweden and Norway have an open border because Norway pays to be a member of the single market.

        • isa

          Andy, Norway has a special agrrement which abides by the 4 pillars: Freedom of movement of people, workers, capitals and goods they are also in the Schengen area so there is no need for a border between Sweden and Norway. You had the possibility of a Norway type of agreement but your government does not want it.

          Nobody in ROI wants a hard border, but you also cannot have a soft border if the UK is out of the single market and ceases freedom of movement. It is not possible unless ROI becomes the gatekeeper of the UK and Europe. Either the border is at the Irish Sea or the UK stays within the Single market or there is a hard border. The 1st seems to me the best option since your government is adamant they want out of the single market.

          And you will excuse me the bluntness but your government couldn’t care less about Northern Ireland, most people in the UK have zero notion of what went on in the North or ROI. The UK public have a very filtered , very pro government view of what went on here for years.

          • MJ

            “but you also cannot have a soft border if the UK is out of the single market”

            The EU certainly can’t, that’s for sure, because it would create a backdoor into the single market for non-EU exporters and the EU wouldn’t be able to collect tariffs.

            “Either the border is at the Irish Sea or the UK stays within the Single market or there is a hard border”

            There will be no border dividing the UK and the UK will leave the single market. So there will be a hard border. The Irish will then have to decide whether to commit economic suicide or leave the EU.

          • Andyoldlabour

            @isa,

            “most people in the UK have zero notion of what went on in the North or ROI. The UK public have a very filtered , very pro government view of what went on here for years”

            I think that you greatly underestimate what we know regarding the history, politics and English intervention in the island of Ireland.
            There are many English people like myself who have an Irish (Catholic) parent and we are well aware of what happened from the times of Cromwell to this day, what happened at the battle of the Boyne, the crimes carried out by Churchill, the shelling of Dublin by the Royal Navy, Bloody Sunday and worst of all – internment.
            Anyway, you said it all by highlighting the hypocrisy of the EU in this matter –

            NORWAY HAS A SPECIAL AGREEMENT

          • Paul Greenwood

            Why doesn’t Dublin simply have a referendum on the matter and see if it prefers to leave the EU ? Surely it doesn’t hurt to ask ?

          • isa

            I have to reply to myself as the option is not there to reply to you all.

            MJ -Ireland would commit economic suicide by leaving the EU, not the opposite. A hard border will inflict economic chaos in Northern Ireland , not the Republic. It will however inflict human conflict to many in the island of Ireland.

            Paul: There is no apettite in Ireland for an Irexit. there will be no such referendum in the near or medium future unless there is a severe shift in public opinion. The appetite is there though for a United Ireland.

            Andy of Labour -You are an exception. And thankfully there are many like you 🙂 When I see the woman nominated by the Tories to deal with NI say that she was not aware that DUP voters did not vote for Sinn Feinn and reverse I felt like I was in a paralel universe of ignorance.

            As for Norway, yes it has a deal and your government refused such deal because it involves staying in the single market.They pay they bennefit from the 4 principles but they have no vote on policy. It is the UK government that refuses a Norway type deal , not Brussels.

          • Moocho

            “most people in the UK have zero notion of what went on in the North or ROI. The UK public have a very filtered , very pro government view of what went on here for years.” True. I grew up being bombarded with news about NI, the situation, the bombings etc, but never had an idea what was going on there or what the history was etc. I now know this was deliberate. It was only when I looked at a map that I understood who was in the right, and who was in the wrong

          • giyane

            To Noroway , to Noroway, to Noroway oer the faem…

            The racist version of Brexit invented by Theresa May is not acceptable in British politics. Nobody ever took any notice of the racist right-wing before the 2007 Tory economy crash. She is especially unwelcome in Birmingham which has an impeccable record on racial and religious diversity. Could the Norwegians please come and take Mrs Matcher haem with them and teach her some manners such as “Freedom of movement of people, workers, capitals and goods “.

            if I was in charge I wouldn’t have given them house room.

    • Anon1

      Just to be clear: any renewal of violence is wholly the reponsibility of those perpetrating it, not those who voted to leave the EU.

      • ufanny

        What about those who voted to leave the EU on the basis of manufacturing an opportunity to perpetrate violence?

        And is it just the perpetrators you hold ”wholly” responsible? Not the strategist’s and financiers (given the British Governments track record with death squads here)?

        Just to be clear chappy….

      • remember kronstadt

        ‘Just to be clear’
        regarding NI and Scotland voting to stay – they have a responsibility to ensure that their decision be respected and actions and consequences thereof are a matter for them

      • Paul Greenwood

        I doubt there will be any such problem. Gerry Adams and his band were getting old and wanted some security in their old age so signed up for public payroll. They knew they were fully infiltrated by MI5 and FRG so they had no real options left. The days of Irish terrorism have waned……and the criminal gangs are simply that.

    • remember kronstadt

      “Prime Minister, a lot of people liked it when you described yourself as a bloody difficult woman”

      then that speech

      Sterling is down 0.9% at $1.3153 and 0.7% at €1.1180.

          • Patmur

            FTSE 100 firms are usually companies which gain a lot, if not most of their profit from overseas – so when Sterling loses value money repatriated to the UK from overseas is worth more when it is exchanged into Sterling. However, if after a no-deal Brexit, there is another huge fall in the value of the £ then we are likely to see a collapse on the stock market too.

            What would cause a big fall is if things go badly and Scotland (and probably northern Ireland) leave the UK with or without a referendum. It would cause a huge loss of confidence worldwide in the currency and future prospects for the country.

        • joeblogs

          N_
          Trying to find the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry?
          The whole basket of them will get cleaned up, very soon.
          Look out below…

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      Today she said that Customs checks in Belfast and Larne was “something no British Prime Minister could ever agree to”. Aye right! She would have snatched that deal in a second if Snarlene hadn’t got on the phone and “corrected” her.

  • isa

    Truly the Guardian is beggining to actually cause me physical nausea. At least when I read a tabloid I know what to expect. This publication, what it has become, disgusts me. The actual fact they don’t seem to even note the irony of criticising Russia for freedom of press and then criticising Russia for giving Snowdem asylum or to try to help Assange shows their dishonesty and their readers sheer lack of thinking brains.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/julian-assange-russia-ecuador-embassy-london-secret-escape-plan?CMP=fb_gu

    • pretzelattack

      they usually disable comments, so the readers that haven’t turned off their brains can’t point out the bullshit in their articles. i posted a link below to a new g article which you should probably avoid reading if you have high blood pressure.

  • flatulence'

    T May saying she has treated the EU with nothing but respect, and then repeatedly slagging them off reminds me of why T May is such a stupid ugly difficult incompetent bitch dictator.

  • Sharp Ears

    It’s the turn of Putin and Galloway to be slagged off by Anshel Pfeffer in Ha’aretz. What lies.

    Analysis Putin Has Little Choice but to Allow Israel to Continue Operating in Syria
    Putin is an expert dancer in the delicate balance of feeding anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to his public while maintaining personal relations with Israel. The public contradictions serve him – and are central to his Syria strategy
    Sep 20, 2018 8:53 PM
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, July 11, 2018.Yuri Kadobnov/AP

    +++While RT and Sputnik both employ and regularly host a cast of conspiracy theorists, Holocaust deniers and Jew-baiters of George Galloway’s ilk,++ Putin is in public almost constantly respectful, at times verging on deferential, of Israel. Since coming to power nearly two decades ago, he has made sure to periodically meet with Israel’s leaders, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and since his re-election in 2009, has had an ever-intensifying dialogue with Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Those close to Putin say he is both a philo-Semite and that in his analyses of the decline and fall of the Soviet empire, has come to the conclusion that one of the biggest mistakes of its leaders was to have made enemies of Israel and world Jewry. But if Putin admires and respects J.ws, why allow his propagandists to smear them?

    /..
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-putin-has-little-choice-but-to-allow-israel-to-continue-operating-in-syria-1.6492247

    From Manchester – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshel_Pfeffer

  • charming

    getting nearer to the grave, another requiem
    “….nor will i break up my country” hasn’t she noticed, that horse is long gone.

  • Dungroanin

    Fuck all to do with brexit negotiations.

    Everything to do with the Labour conference and trying to control the narrative over the weekend.

    “Don’t listen to them offering actual policies that will improve most lives – talk about May’s Country! No surrender to EU, etc”

    Pathetic – couldn’t even get her standing infront of No 10 – windblown and resolute, had to do it indoors so she could practice and practice till Laura said ‘that’ll have to do!

  • Anon1

    Theresa’s tough act was pathetic. She’s not tough, she doesn’t even believe in what she’s saying. In her heart she’s still a remainer. Remainers are weak and don’t believe in concepts like self-determination. They are repulsed by the notion of a sovereign nation state. A tough operator would announce a ‘no deal’ early on and tell the other side that they know where to find you if they want a deal.

    • remember kronstadt

      weak, pathetic, but a realist with nowhere to go and nothing to offer — labour missed a bullet on this one!

        • flatulence'

          I find this very frustrating, but I don’t blame Labour. I blame the bias and corruption of the media, and ditto for the self serving red tory career politicians. My more conspiratorial side thinks the whole system is actually rigged and not representative of the people at all. Either way it is fucked up and needs fixing.

          • flatulence'

            Exactly, or one of his clones from bad bones. Lets have an opposition party that coasts and pretends to be opposition but actually brings about no change at all when that’s all people are desperately voting for in vain. Lets have a stable Labour party, at the expense of true opposition and democracy, at the disgraceful cost in lives of the poor and disabled and the lives lost in illegal wars to further the interests of corporations.

        • Ken Kenn

          And what or who would be your “real leader?”

          The centre ground ( shifted way over to the right by Thatcher and son of Thatcher Blair over the years but never noticed by the MSM )
          has no pull at all for the electorate otherwise ,Vince Cable would have his adoring fans like Jeremy Corbyn.

          The Lib Dems are languishing behind the party that fell apart and went near bankrupt – UKIP. 6% to UKIP’s 8% in polling so it’s not exactly a recipe for success standing in the new centre is it?

          The Blairites appear to have 50 million quid burning a hole in Alistair Campbell’s pocket but there is just two main problems namely:

          The New Party has no policies.

          The new party has no leader – not even a celebrity one.

          The New party will not get many MPs in a first past the post system.

          I am all for a Corbyn led government but even for fans of that there is just the little matter of how to bring about a GE?

          There are many machinations but what is definitely required is that the Tory Remainer ‘ rebels ‘ ( stop
          laughing at the back there ) are not willing to rebel that much if it means a chance of a Corbyn led government. Ultimately that is May’s trump card.

          Unfortunately there are quite few in the Blairite camp who would rather May and the Conservative government remain in power rather than have a Corbyn led government. These particular people consider themselves as ‘ Centrists ‘ as they like the MSM have not realised just how far Thatcher and Blair shifted UK politics to the right.

          It’s ABC ( Anything But Corbyn )for the majority of anti Corbynists and that is why at the moment Labour can’t get far enough ahead to gain a sizeable/workable majority government.

          But of course if you or the alleged Tory Rebels want to rebel then we can all test our theories as to who
          was right and who was wrong post a GE.

          I’m game – are you?

          • flatulence'

            I love you. Brains. Knowledge. Experience. You ooze it.

            People are waking up. It has to have made a difference. We have to win. We just need the chance to tip the scales no matter how weighted they are in the other direction. Push damn you! We’re on the right side of history!

    • Patmur

      If you declare a no-deal Brexit for tomorrow morning, there would be nothing left to discuss. Apart from anything else the Pound would go through the floor!

    • James

      It was, she not, and she doesn’t. I’m not a cardiologist.
      I suppose you would call me a “Remainder” (or worse), and I’m quite strong, physically and intellectually, thank ‘ee kindly Sir. I believe Roger Penrose’ theory of cosmogenesis, CCC, may be a correct answer to the question of creation, but prefer to analyse ambiguous concepts like your “self-determination” in a less ambitious way. As a general rule, I am not repulsed by many “notions”, and “a sovereign nation state” is not among those.
      Your final assertion is risible (though unfunny) and needs no rebuttal.
      Your comment is jejune claptrap.

    • James

      It was, she’s not, and she doesn’t. I’m not a cardiologist.
      I suppose you would call me a “Remainder” (or worse), and I’m quite strong, physically and intellectually, thank ‘ee kindly, Sir. I believe Roger Penrose’s theory of cosmogenesis, CCC, may be a correct answer to the Big Question of creation, but prefer to analyse ambiguous concepts like your “self-determination” in a less ambitious way. As a general rule, I am not repulsed by many “notions”, and “a sovereign nation state” is not one of them.
      Your final assertion is risible (though unfunny) and needs no rebuttal.
      Your comment is jejune claptrap.

  • flatulence'

    Kate Hoey “Defiant speech by @theresamay, at last we make it clear to the EU that we can stand on our own again and be successful #leavemeansleave”

    Did this Labour MP forget which party she represents? Sounds just like the crap Jeremy Vine was coming out with today. They all read off the same script. We need rid of this rot.

    Come on Corbyn. Get in. Rid the rot. Lets get it right and make it stick. It’s frustrating that doing it the right way has to be so diplomatic. This scum makes my blood boil, but it will be worth it to make it stick. End this madness for good.

    • Anon1

      That is awful from Hoey. Defiant? Don’t make me laugh. All Corbyn would do is make every concession possible to the EU and then wave a little piece of paper saying he’s got a deal.

          • Trowbridge H. Ford

            No, I am referring to your posts like I have no creditability, being simple mad. And you left out my claims about it, NSA, and the NRO office causing weather modification for more regime change.

      • flatulence'

        Corbyn is well respected by EU leaders, who he has been meeting even though he is not in power. Any deal he can make would be a damn site better than anything this clown could pretend to have achieved. Her plan may just be to destroy relations as much as possible to let Corbyn take the fall when they extend the deadline and lose power to Labour. That’s just how reckless and self serving she, and what she represents, is.

        • Anon1

          Of course he’s well respected. He’d give them everything they want. That’s why they want to deal with him.

          • flatulence'

            Yes because Corbyn is so well known for backing down on his or his constituents principles. If you believe that then logic is not your friend.

          • Anon1

            “Principles”

            He spent his entire political life opposed to the EU and then came out for Remain at the critical moment.

      • charming

        A number of women labour mp’s, titled and entitled, including that chap from birkenhead have hit the menopause.

    • Trowbridge H. Ford

      Looks like Putin was worried enough about May seeing to his assassination that he looked into rescuing him.

      Only thing I have seen on the site for months that I liked

        • Trowbridge H. Ford

          Conspiracies, plots, murders, quakes, regime-change and weather modification are hardly bulllshit.

          • pretzelattack

            like the conspiracy to frame russia? glad you agree. we don’t know if anybody was murdered, but the guardian is riding that rail all the way to the end. don’t know what “weather modification” and earthquakes have to do with another another propaganda war against russia, though.

  • The 62%

    Theresa “Dark Entity” May is now most likely finished as PM. Her Chequer’s “my deal or no deal” blown out of the water by Tusk.
    It’s a shambles, and the populace has had to put up with this farce for over two years.

    Interviews on the BBC from people who voted for Brexit seems to usually be:”all them foreigners coming over here…..and claiming benefits”. I have started to ask people who have stated this same theme to me: “Can you please point out someone locally you know, who is a foreigner and claiming benefits?”. No answer is usually given.

    The SNP needs to up the anti and organise some kind of “stay in the EU” demonstrations. Plently of people would attend. What about the forgotten 62%?

    • Charles Bostock

      Blown out if the water by Tusk?? Tusk is so feeble he couldn’t blow soap bubbles out of a straw. He is a wooden puppet and a joke to most Brussels insiders. Even the Polish government didn’t want to renew his mandate.

    • Observer

      And who is making our shampoos and toothpaste? The Germans.

      It’s time to Make Britain Great Again!

      Mayhem has really botched this up. I would’ve thought we had some of the biggest hitters dealmakers in The City. The fuckin’ politicians and bureaucrats have once again shown they are not up to it!

      • Tony_0pmoc

        Observer,

        Never been that impressed with the “barrow boys” I occasionaly used to meet in The City, but they did put on some extremely good Classical Concerts and Children’s Shows at The Barbican, which were very much cheaper and better quality than in London’s West End.

        My wife used to work there. Even she never thought any of them were evil or satanic. I merely gained the impression that some of them were a bit thick. However as an outsider from Lancashire, we maintained a degree of mutual respect.

        Most of them were Essex Boys and Girls.

        Not in the slightest bit posh, especially after a few pints.

        Tony

  • mike

    In the real world, the Maybot’s “emergency” Brexit statement is being viewed as a disaster, with the device herself coming across as unhinged.

    But for the state broadcaster, she sails serenely along. She is wise. She is reasonable. The very embodiment of Britannia.

    The state broadcaster soft-soaps May at every turn. The state broadcaster savages Corbyn at every turn.

    Any reasonable person might think the state broadcaster has an agenda…

    • Xavi

      The state broadcaster belongs to the Conservative party. The only “opposition” it deems acceptable is that of Tony Blair and his crew.

  • Republicofscotland

    Having not heard Theresa May’s speech, I’ve only read snippets of it in the media. One wonders if the PM, is attempting to call, the EU’s bluff, banking on the hope that the EU 27 will not want to see trade with the UK greatly diminish.

    It comes after the EU rejected May’s latest proposal, May all out of ideas, calls for respect from the EU, the sign of a desperate leader under great pressure, partly of her own making.

    I did hear the PM, give a defiant Churchillian remark, that she wouldn’t break up her country, as if its her to break up in the first place. I’m sure Wales, NI and Scotland will decide for themselves whats best for their citizens, and not the British PM.

    • laguerre

      “One wonders if the PM, is attempting to call, the EU’s bluff, banking on the hope that the EU 27 will not want to see trade with the UK greatly diminish.”

      Obviously she thinks she is doing that. But she’s been trying the same for months, if not the full two years. The EU is not bluffing. That’s the Tory failure of comprehension.

      • James

        If anyone on here can think of anything post 1945 with greater consequences than leaving the EU, I would be tickled pink to hear it.

        It’s such a shame there’s so much at stake right now; as PMs in my recollection go, other than perhaps Tony Blair, Mrs May is the only one imbued with such innate comedy value, she needs no additional parody.
        In more normal times, watching her poncing around would pure entertainment, like Mike Yarwood’s Wilson and Heath, or Spitting Image’s Thatcher and Major.
        Sadly, under the circs, Mrs M is decidedly unfunny.

        • Tom Welsh

          “If anyone on here can think of anything post 1945 with greater consequences than leaving the EU, I would be tickled pink to hear it”.

          That’s a very easy one. Joining the European Common Market and finding it gradually transformed into the EU. Like dressing in a nice comfortable suit that very slowly turns into concrete.

          England and Scotland functioned very well as independent sovereign states for at least 700 years. Then they united and Great Britain became one of the world’s most successful nations for another 200 years.

          Anyone not wholly ignorant of history will be aware that we do not need to prove that we can survive as an independent sovereign state.

          I am always entertained when I hear of Japanese industrial magnates lecturing the UK, and saying that they would not do business here if we become independent again. I want to ask them when Japan plans to become a small insignificant part of China.

          • laguerre

            Unfortunately the world has changed since 1066. The world has changed, the Channel doesn’t mean much any more. British island-justified isolation doesn’t mean too much, as we’re about to find out, if we insist on isolation.

          • James

            Sorry it was you Taff who fell for that one, and not one of the many swivel-eyed aficionados of the music of Greig that lurk on here.
            I liked, your “nice comfortable suit that very slowly turns into concrete”, but you’d have to admit that breaking out of that concrete will be a greater consequence than putting on the comfortable suit. Certainly more dramatic.
            That the consequences will be positive is your point of view, that in the medium term they will be negative is mine. I hope you’re right, but I know have a justified true belief you are not.
            Disappointed not to be tickled pink by that one, Taff.
            I’ll not continue to dismantle the remainder of your comment, tempting as it is. John Kerr GCMG is far more fluent, knowledgeable, and impartial than anyone I know on the subject of Brit-exit. He should know what he’s talking about and he surely does. No wonder God Calls him God

        • Dungroanin

          I quite rate Wilson stopping us sending kids to die in Vietnam as a watershed moment.

          Of course the bankers were pissed off enough to plan a coup to get rid of him after that.

          • James

            The numbers dying of complications of Type II on hospital trolleys in corridors on a wet Tuesday afternoon will probably dwarf the casualties from the same Tuesday afternoon in 1968 during the Tet offensive in a parallel universe where a hypothetical UK intervention in that débâcle did take place.
            If you follow my drift?

      • N_

        Yes – a hilarious flourish to end with. If she’d delivered the statement outside the front door, she probably would have had to answer questions. Just got to wonder how long this ridiculous spectacle can continue. If only they had rescheduled the last night of the Proms to coincide with the leader’s address at the Tory conference!

  • Republicofscotland

    Moving on from one desperate leader (Theresa May) to another.

    The US, and ergo Trump have been told to back off or face the consequences by China.

    “The US says China has contravened US sanctions on Moscow introduced over Russian actions in Ukraine and alleged interference in US politics.”

    US sanctions, I take it Trump’s ego and again ergo the USA’s is so big, that they expect the world to abide by their decisions, on sanctions.

    “China recently bought 10 Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 missiles.
    Beijing has not joined in the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the US and its Western allies since 2014.”

    Trump is attempting to alienate China, through Russian sanctions and trade regulations. When the reality of it, is his plan of attack (in a economical sense) will only strengthen ties between China and Russia

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45598045

    It will be very interesting to see who backs down first.

    • laguerre

      I didn’t much agree with that article. I doubt that the French were involved. Frankly the situation remains as it is. By agreement with Erdogan, the jihadis have been given a date to withdraw from their positions in Idlib. If they don’t do it, as I suppose, then the Syrians will be free to attack.

  • N_

    The Office for National Statistics has published a list of the most popular names given to babies born in England and Wales in 2017, and the BBC etc. are printing stories with headlines such as “Hunter and Aurora join the top 100”.

    The list for boys runs

    OLIVER 6259
    HARRY 5031
    GEORGE 4929
    NOAH 4273
    JACK 4190
    JACOB 3968
    LEO 3781
    OSCAR 3738
    CHARLIE 3724
    MUHAMMAD 3691

    Every name is listed under its exact spelling, so for example there were 921 ELLIOTS and 824 ELLIOTTS, a total of 1745. There were also 837 MOHAMMADS, 1982 MOHAMMEDS, and 3681 MUHAMMADS, a total of 6510. When minor variations of the same name are listed under one heading, Muhammad/Mohammad/Mohammed was the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales last year.

    Not recognising such FACTS plays straight into the hands of the Islamophobes and the Daily Heil.

      • Sharp Ears

        Try George Gideon OLIVER Osborne, late of the Treasury and now knocking up +£1m pa incl £650,000 from Blackrock* for one day’s work per week and ‘editing’ Lebedev’s rag, the Evening Standard.

        * Messrs Fink and Kapito’s NY enterprise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

        Wonder if Gideon does his ‘work’ online or does he have to physically attend Midtown Manhattan?

        • Sharp Ears

          Or maybe Oliver Bullough, the journalist.

          ‘In the September 2018 Tax Justice Network monthly podcast/radio show, the Taxcast we talk about ‘Moneyland’ and the transnational elite that have broken free of democratic control with journalist Oliver Bullough.

          ‘Tax Justice Network monthly podcast/radio show, the Taxcast:
          “We talk to journalist Oliver Bullough about his new book, just out ‘Moneyland: why thieves and crooks now rule the world, and how to take it back’ We discuss the transnational elite that has broken free of democratic control and corruption contagion.

          Also, 10 years after the financial crash, the risks are as high as before, if not more severe – how do we tackle the next crisis?

          Plus, the fifth aide of US President Trump has now been convicted of, or admitted criminal charges: what does Paul Manafort’s case tell us about the spread of plutocracy and oligarchy?

          Politics is increasingly dominated by this very tight elite class and it is all about Moneyland…dark money is the enemy of democracy, there is a battle between money and democracy and right now money is winning. And it’s a very worrying thought that we aren’t more aware of this as a society and we really need to think about it because a trillion dollars a year is a lot of money and that’s being stolen every year, which means all of that money is stacked up against us. And the longer we don’t act, the more money there will be essentially fighting back and they have been fighting back very successfully.”

          ~ Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland: why thieves and crooks now rule the world, and how to take it back ‘

          H/T TLN and Richard Murphy.

    • Kempe

      Every Muslim boy is given the name Muhammad/Mohammad/Mohammed even if it’s not his first or even second forename.

    • flatulence'

      Worth spelling out of course that Mohammad and variants dominate boys names in Islamic families whereas non-faith, for want of a better description, families turn to a vast array of different boys names to choose from or make new ones. So this data could not be used to demonstrate that our population is dominated by Muslims. Though I’m sure it will be.

      • N_

        Don’t you think the natives chavs proles are capable of understanding that the fact that X is the most popular boy’s name does not imply that the religion in which boys are named X is the most popular religion? How stupid do you think white working class people are?

        Or do you think it’s best to lie to the knuckle-dragging scroungers, because otherwise they’ll go all Nazi? Ever heard of any term longer than say a year? People didn’t vote for Brexit because they knew Strasbourg or the ECJ or qualified majority voting from a hole in the ground. They voted for Brexit for another reason.

        Here’s what’s happening: middle-class and lower middle-class Labour-voting bureaucrats and middle class and lower middle class Daily Mail readers, all steaming ahead in perfect harmony.

        • flatulence'

          Hi N_
          I wasn’t commenting on any point you were making because I wasn’t sure what your point was and I’m still not. I don’t mean any offence, I’m just that stupid. My first thought on reading your quoted stats was, jeez, I didn’t know there were that many Muslims here. But then almost immediately my second thought was that this data does not say that, and cannot. So I was only pointing out this fact to save other apparently stupid natives, chavs or working class like me making the same mistake as me and not realising it.

    • James

      “Lüge, Betrüge, Statistik” is the better German version of “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
      N_’s comment about this disambiguation reminds me of the campaign in the Sixties which lead to the introduction of the “breathalyser”.
      Barbara Castle as Minister for Transport was finding it difficult to convince Parliament and the wider public that it was a Good Thing; there was a particularly hostile opposition to the motion. Broadly, the statistics actually revealed a remarkably low level of injury and minuscule number of deaths which could be attributed to drunken drivers. Some bright spark (who? I’m too young to remember this) came up with the brilliant idea of “massaging” the figures by including deaths and injuries caused by drivers hitting drunken pedestrians. [Google away for confirmation]
      These new “drink-drive” data of enormously swollen numbers was sufficient to carry the day.
      Nothing to say about the merits or otherwise of such enforcement, just a digression on N_’s theme. As I often have pointed out, the devil is in the detail.

      • flatulence'

        indeed… On the same note. Record number of those in employed. The fact that they count those with 3 jobs as 3 people employed is not shouted down as massaging the figures either.

          • James

            The incredibly low unemployment figures in the UK have, of course, many causal reasons. In addition to your suggestion, and with even more impact on the statistics are two other little ruses I’m aware of.
            The first little “scam” is the payment of non JSA benefits to “self-employed” persons, who in fact make little/no money from that “activity”. This may sound like I’m morphing into Trowbridge H Ford on here. During the period 2012-2016 there was very strong pressure on Job Centre staff from above, Minister IDS ultimately, to repeatedly sanction longer-term JSA claimants. This has been kept fairly low key in the press, other than the food bank stories where the connection is usually omitted. The major result (apart from an unknown number of suicides, perhaps low hundreds annually) of this “campaign” has been quite a few hundred thousand former longer term claimants “giving up” on JSA, to become self employed and get other benefits to supplement their zero-to-low income. Examples of this so-called self employment are diverse and numerous, an example: running a market stall once a, week but selling nothing gives a flavour.
            The second “ruse” is perhaps more controversial, and a matter of opinion. I seems to me that a strong motivation for encouraging school leavers into higher education [famously having its origins in Tony Blair’s 1997electioneering balony “eduction, education, education”] was the attendant removal of a very large number of persons from the unemployment statistics. I think this was far more successful than initially anticipated, and UK now has a massively distended higher education sector, which has become a kind of bubble.
            In fine, UK government’s have been scared witless by unemployment since Harold Macmillan’s day, it has been a Prime Ministerial bogeyman almost. It was an inspired idea by Blair, everyone’s a winner, but I have reason to believe that massaging the unemployment figures was originally a major driver of this policy.
            Enough, I’ve drugged myself up, time for sleep.

    • Tony_0pmoc

      N_,

      I assumed you were a bit old for that but according to “Chemical weapons expert arrested after police ‘taken ill’ at Devon home” who got taken into custody for a bad smell in his kitchen, he said that he at the age of 73, could make much healthier babies, than someone aged 23. I suspect his research is correct.

      Good quality video, but I reckon he might have a bit of rising damp.

      I hope they ddn’t beat him up in prison, and I would be amazed if they haven’t released him.

      “Dr Chris Busby on the Skripal Russia Poisoning affair”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4utEI2EU64

      Tony

    • laguerre

      Muhammad is hardly high in the list, indeed at the end, while biblical names, indicating their religious alignment, are common. How can a Noah be other than a Jew, if the name means something?

  • Hatuey

    Ahhhhhhh. Isn’t Brexit marvellous… one part of the establishment knows ‘no deal’ going to be apocalyptic, the other half which lives in the shadows is doing everything possible to scupper any chance of a deal.

    What are the possibilities? If sane heads are to prevail, they’re going to need another referendum but if Labour or the Tories press and achieve that then they’ll never be forgiven by half of the population. A national coalition might do it — would it surprise anyone? What a mess.

    If England isn’t careful it could find itself “in the heady position of the spouse who looked like walking out, but decided to give things one last go…” that’s the position Scotland is in now, according to JK Rowling. Let me tell you that it isn’t half as heady as she cracked it up to be.

    How satisfying it is to see the hubristic Brexiteers face their contradictions and treated with the contempt that Scotland has gotten used to over the last few hundred years.

    May’s card was marked in Europe when she proposed to use Europeans living in the UK as bargaining chips. Trust me, our friends on the continent took a very dim view of that.

    On immigration generally, which seems to be at the root of everything, what a nerve these people have to talk about immigrants in one sentence and their Empire days in the next. How do you live with such big contradictions like that in such small minds?

    And then theres “The City”, sitting quietly in the background. That’s the future for England, fleecing taxpayers on a global scale. How poetic that they have ended up where they started, criminal privateers on the flanks of Europe.

    I’m absolutely loving this.

  • Blunderbuss

    BREXIT

    I don’t know why the Irish border is such a problem. Why not just leave it as it is now? OK, there will be a bit of smuggling but probably no more than already happens between France and various small ports on the south coast of England.

    • James

      You make a good point, though I think the answer is that, Britain now out of the Union, the “little bit of smuggling but probably no more than already happens between France and various small ports on the south coast of England” might prove slightly inaccurate and a whisker of an understatement.
      Still curious about you microchipped man/cat story of yesterday btw, do expand?.

    • N_

      The Irish border has got tremendous mythical importance, even if for most people in the Republic and in Northern Ireland the practical difference between a completely open border and a frontier lined with rolls of NATO razor wire and having only two or three crossing-points would otherwise be almost non-existent.

      The reason they can’t leave it as it is now (unless Brexit doesn’t happen or happens in name only) is because EU member states are not allowed to be in a customs union and single market with countries that do not belong to the EU. If Frankfurt and the big players looked the other way, there would be repercussions all over EU27, leading to the end of the EU project.

      • James

        I think that smuggling would become a significant problem, and would swiftly lead to a necessary imposition of measures which would risk inflammation of auld tensions which are part of the etymology of your term the “mythical importance” of the border.
        I think I agree with your second paragraph, although I am slightly unclear of your precise meaning.

    • Dungroanin

      Think about it.
      The EU would have to treat everything transiting from eire the same way as any third country, eg a post brexit UK.

      In a perverted way this is how the UK would be reunited with all of Ireland, the Empire could actually move forward again! Without them having a referendum.

      The compromise is that Ireland is deemed united and there is both a north -south and east- west border in the sea. A hard sell to both current states on that island. But I dare say that enough lucre would convince both and make all their peoples pretty well rewarded.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Killer May isn;t expecting respect from the EU: she expects it to work ou6 a deal her followers will accept.

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