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As for the Troubles, I remember leaving Marks and Spencer’s (may even be C&A- had the large nice internal staircase for the old Bristolians)in Bristol due to a bomb warning and remember the Park St Wimpy getting it’s windows blown out by a bomb nearby, even Bath got that arcade blown up.
It’s easily forgotten how it used to be, I also remember sas soldiers getting pulled out a car and beaten to death by a crowd(in the news).
It was a different world then thou so I’m not sure it’s suddenly going to descend into those times again but some people just need something they can use to cause mischief.
I also remember sas soldiers getting pulled out a car and beaten to death by a crowd(in the news).
I doubt that very much, as they where Royal Single regiment and not SAS. </pedant>
Yep your right,but remember I’m remembering this from my memories at the time as on the tv news and reported sun at the time it was happening.
A quick google brings up
Sends a shiver down my spine reading all the details.
Colleges of my sisters ex, who was deployed to NI at the time.
Is it true that if an SAS member is killed in action they are reported as being from their original regiment rather than SAS?
I remember my mum checking under the car every time she went anywhere while my dad was doing a 2 year tour in NI.
A thought of returning to violence in NI is worrying.
It is though just the cherry on the sh*te cake that is brexit. The 'unintended' and 'unexpected' consequences of a policy of isolation, withdrawal from practical systems and political collaboration that worked (albeit not perfectly) for over 40 years. The lies, the lack of care, lack of understanding and selfishness that is the brexit process was very immediate. The ongoing consequences are a slower, stronger and more harmful process.
Who was it who said brexit is the mistake of a generation?
To also add: we've a minister and department for brexit opportunity.
Where do I find thier output - the opportunity they are being paid to promote and which I was promised?
Where do I find thier output – the opportunity they are being paid to promote and which I was promised?
He's busy putting notes on the desks of civil servants who are working from home delivering the shit the government have promised.
Cannot wait for him to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to justify the work of his department 😎
Aged 20, wanting to improve my english, found a job in a hôtel restaurant next to Dartford bridge, jumped in the car drove all day, ferry et voilà. Found my Wife, 3 Kids, bought small flat, house and bigger house. 3 différent jobs over 20 years. Only once had a racism incident.
Moved back to France in 2017.
Impossible now thanks to Brexit
behind the scenes, Johnson always quietly folds when actually faced with tough choices with real world consequences
Just like Thatcher then!
The short-sightedness and attitude of "well, it doesn't bother me" from the people responsible for negotiating the agreement was astounding. Thanks to the incompetence of Grant Shapps, I cannot work legally anywhere in Europe because my professional qualifications are no longer recognised. Conversely, my job in the UK can be taken quite cheerfully by an EU citizen.
It would have take just a tiny bit of effort on his part to ensure that our qualifications are reflected both ways, but he was too lazy to do it.
I will never forgive this Government, the ministers, and above all the racist and/or elderly ignorant pricks that voted for it in the first place.
It would have take just a tiny bit of effort on his part to ensure that our qualifications are reflected both ways, but he was too lazy to do it.
Ah details, the public don’t want details 🙂
It’s almost like they did it to keep you in.
I like Nancy Pelosi.
It needs to be made very clear that it’s not just her stating her own personal position…
https://twitter.com/repbrendanboyle/status/1528377204190728196?s=21
Some might forget the close link between domestic terrorism, organised crime and smuggling between the north and the south when you have differing tax regimes for things like petrol, tobacco and any other commodity that can be illicitly traded. Ditching the Protocol and any tax/duty harmonisation means that whole can of worms gets opened again.
TBH it’s what irks me that you need to be in something ‘like’ the SM and CU to really make everything work without causing the pain that has been/going to be inflected.
Lots of pain for a few cheap lamb cuts an steaks an blue passports and I doubt if the funding that was promised to replace the eu schemes will ever been seen at the levels it was.
I doubt if the funding that was promised to replace the eu schemes will ever been seen at the levels it was.
Of course it won't. This is what amazes me. People thought that Tories would invest in their areas. That's just not what Tories do, it's not what they're about. Anyone who knows the first thing about politics would know that.
Interesting article on ta interweb bout our bubbles
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61408745
In the UK, the number of people existing solely in just tiny political echo chambers online are "not nothing, but the figures are smaller than you might think".
The estimate, he says, "is that 5% of UK internet users are in a left wing echo chamber, and 2% in a right wing echo chamber," but he says this has to be put in the context that "26% of internet users in the UK have not accessed any online news at all in the past week".
But molgrips, the vast bulk of the populace know nothing about actual policies, or inter state relations, or intra state governance... and don't care. They are easily lead, and do not think. As some unpleasant Austrian once pointed out.
Where do I find thier output – the opportunity they are being paid to promote and which I was promised?
The single opportunity so far is that of the useless Minister for Victorian Workhouse Reintroduction getting a new title.
Much like the Minister of Levelling Up. Do let us know how that one is going, Gove.
This space intentionally left blank
Well may as well put an interesting fact that RM has a cock on his family coat of arms.
Ah don’t forget the covid vaccination roll out.
It’s a lie but what’s another to friends.
Truth is always the first casualty of ‘war’.
The rich don’t need rights… they have the means.
Yep, and applies to the majority of their life - see abortion, rich women can always get a safe abortion.
And to agree with the FOM for ordinary folk - early in 2000 we'd an issue at work in our German business unit. It needed someone with 'character' to go over and 'sort it'.
They asked me whether I would. Within 2 months I'd rented a house, personally as we didn't like the offer of a company flat and wanted a garden (OH and 1 y/o), and moved with everything in the back of a wagon, including my motorbike. UK house emptied on the Monday, they got the ferry and we met them there on the Wednesday and moved in.
Neither I nor the company had to ask anyone for 'permission'.
And when I'd sorted it out, just moved back.
Now, this would need a lot of effort on the part of the company to sort out, and quite frankly, they'd just employ an EU27 passport holder to do it instead.
Leaving note - an EU27 passport holder now has more rights in both the EU and UK than I have. Why? Because the idiots not only voted to remove my FOM, they then voted for a hard-right Govt that can now remove my right to a UK passport.
I was actually at a Brit enclave in Spain yesterday idly wondering about all the people that had sold up and moved over without the requirement for health insurance and a minimal monthly income.
No more just rocking up moving in and signing on the ‘padron’.
FOM was great tbh, you got the rights without needing a big wedge.
Tbh there were regs and rules but the amounts required to fulfil them were way less than now.
And even in my notsobrit area they are fining people for driving on U.K. licences(not tourists- residents or if you put yourself on the padron ).
Riiding round the highlands this week its obvious how many cafes and hotels are running reduced service or hours for lack of staff. One chap said £14 per hour was being advertised for cleaners and still trouble recruiting
One chap said £14 per hour was being advertised for cleaners
So proof that Brexit will increase wages and opportunities then ?
** I voted remain and still think that Brexit is the worst thing that has happened in my lifetime but there's little point using a positive to try and prove a negative**
Paying someone that doesn't exist an imaginary wage doesn't prove much. Many bits of the UK will really struggle for staff this summer. Rural areas of Scotland in particular. Not paying anyone anything, because there is no one doing the job, isn't exactly going to help the local economy.
We are about to see a good old fashioned recession... this will to some degree adjust the labour market (in an unpleasant way)
Demand on all goods even food is dropping at a phenomenal rate. If we all cut back by even 10% then the impact is huge. All the indicators are there, even Rushi cant borrow his way out of this one.
Apparently nothing to do with Brexit.
Lots of businesses on the islands still struggling to recruit hospitality staff this far into the season. One cafe has closed and another running reduced hours due to lack of staff. The whole issue of cleaners/housekeepers on the islands is increasingly contentious - there was a bit of a stooshie on the local FB page when a non-islander was looking for someone to clean their rental when there’s an absolute dearth of long-term rental accommodation for locals such as teachers and nurses. Besides, £250/weekend for 6 months of cleaning up some else’s shit is hardly rolling in it. I trade at the local market - everyone’s sales are way down in comparison to last year.
Leaving note – an EU27 passport holder now has more rights in both the EU and UK than I have. Why? Because the idiots not only voted to remove my FOM, they then voted for a hard-right Govt that can now remove my right to a UK passport.
As an Anglo/Irish dual, I now have more rights than anyone else in Europe. Now remind me who are the idiots.
Pub i am in tight now also is on reduced service for lack of staff
Direct tesult of brexit cos these highland pubs ran for years on eu staff ongap years. Even with good wages being offered tbey just cannot get staff
Doesn't seem to have affected the amount you appear to have drunk...
Now remind me who are the idiots.
Leave voters.
Leave voters.
Now, that's not fair. Some of them were cynical opportunists.
Now, that’s not fair. Some of them were cynical opportunists.
You're absolutely right. I must learn to watch my p's and q's.
Watching Question Time last night was interesting. It was from Belfast and I've never seen an audience so angry
And with good reason. There can be no starker illustration of the absolute folly of Brexit than the present situation in NI. But then it was always going to be like that. The Good Friday Agreement is, was and always will be completely incompatible with the whole principle of Brexit and the NI protocol
The audience was completely divided. On the one hand you have those that are reasonably happy as they are enjoying the advantages of essentially remaining in the Customs Union and Single Market. And who can blame them? The fact that NI trade is prospering stands as daily evidence of the utter stupidity of this whole ludicrous project.
Then you've got the permanently irate idiots of the DUP who still can't seem to accept that Boris Johnson sold them down the river for the sake of Brexit. It was pointed out to them repeatedly that Theresa May negotiated a deal that addressed their concerns but they voted against it, then they voted for Johnsons deal, complete with border down the Irish Sea
God knows where we go from here. Unilaterally ripping up deals? The collapse of the GFA?
But Northern Ireland is presently a right mess, politically, and that is entirely down to Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers. The irony of that being that they don't actually give a flying ****!
But Northern Ireland is presently a right mess, politically, and that is entirely down to Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers.
Nature abhors a vacuum...
God knows where we go from here.
United Ireland.
Independent Scotland.
United Ireland.
Independent Scotland.
Ultimately yes. Probably.
But how much blood will be spilt in the interim?
And for what?
the permanently irate idiots of the DUP who still can’t seem to accept that Boris Johnson sold them down the river for the sake of Brexit
I could be completely wrong (I've tried to understand Irish politics but don't always succeed) but it looks to me as if the DUP voted for Brexit specifically to screw up the GFA and strengthen border controls between NI and Éire.
I think you're crediting them with too much intelligence there.
it looks to me as if the DUP voted for Brexit specifically to screw up the GFA and strengthen border controls between NI and Éire
In a sense that politics is not real 'yes'. The reality that results is always, seemingly, a surprise to the nutjobs and idiots. Despite having had it pointed out to them beforehand.
Such is life. If a majority of people can be duped into believing inevitable consequences are 'Project Fear' then we are ****ed.
For example- what do you think happens when you turn your back on frictionless trade with your closest neighbours? And ones that form a bloc of 27 countries with a combined supply and demand that far exceeds your own?
You don't need to be a professor of economics to work that one out.
The Good Friday Agreement is, was and always will be completely incompatible with the whole principle of Brexit and the NI protocol
The GFA is incompatible with a hard Brexit. The NI protocol is compatible with the GFA, so the EU believes. The impossible triangle consists of the protocol, the Brexit the UK negotiated and a UK - wide free trade zone. Pick any two.
Pick any two.
Johnson struggles to pick his nose. Ask Carrie - if you can find her.
As an Anglo/Irish dual, I now have more rights than anyone else in Europe.
Which rights do you have over say Anglo/French dual? Or Canadian/French dual?
Meh,well it’s been over a month since I last drove as my U.K. driving licence isn’t recognised in Spain and I can’t take a driving test as you need a residency to hold a licence.(that was also supposed to to be in days err a month ago).
It’s an interesting perspective, these little gotchas.
Edukator - residence rights in the UK and freedom of movement into the UK - because of the UK / Ireland common travel area
I have that as Anglo/French, TJ. And a French/Canadian would have fredom of movement in Canada and the EU which is EU plus one country other too.
Any dual Anglo/Somewhere in EU give you the same rights as dual UK/Irish so I'm intrigued by these extra UK/Irish rights as opposed to any other UK/European dual, hence the question in my last post.
I doubt that very much, as they where Royal Single regiment and not SAS. </pedant>
🤔
if the DUP voted for Brexit specifically to screw up the GFA and strengthen border controls between NI and Éire.
The charitable interpretation is they saw that with the increasing blurred border if we remained inside the EU that long term trend being inevitably to a reunited Ireland and so hoped the brexit would manage to disrupt it.
The less charitable is they are a bunch of creationist nutcases whose only modern political idea was the cash for ashes corruption.
Edukator - its freedom of movement without even needing a passport Look up the ireland / Uk common travel area. An irish passport gives you more rights.
Beep, boop, Sterling crisis incoming, right on cue!
Stagflation, Oil Crisis, Sterling Crisis, Trade Crisis
What else do we need to complete the 'Sick Man of Europe' 70s collection? Mass unemployment, I guess, but that's a bit further down the track.
We do have mass unemployment. Its just hidden by zero hours contracts and throwing folk of benefits
But it's OK, number five on the list of potential Brexit benefits appears to be derestricted ebikes.
The other stuff also appears to be pesky regulations that stop people dying, stuffing up the environment, or hurting other people, or being worked to death or paid properly. And hoovers.
No mention of banana bendiness though, so I'm disappointed.
Edukator – its freedom of movement without even needing a passport Look up the ireland / Uk common travel area. An Irish passport gives you more rights.
But Irish People do need a passport card or a Passport book to travel in the EU and NI citizens need a UK passport. The Irish passport card costs £35 and only lasts 5 years max or as long as the passport book so is at least as expensive as a full French passport per year.
I would argue that EU citizens who can travel the whole Shengen/EU on a free identity card have greater freedom of movement.
The other stuff also appears to be pesky regulations that stop people dying, stuffing up the environment, or hurting other people, or being worked to death or paid properly. And hoovers.
Yep, the vacuum cleaner seems an unhealthy obsession and the fracking, I can’t believe that people woke up and put an x in the leave box as fracking was on their mind or they wanted a faster ebike.
Not sure they’ll be happy with the ebikers ripping around at 40mph+ everywhere and you could always previously get one without losing all your working rights.
Point 7 in that list - remove benefits for agency workers?!
What the actual ****?!
You seem surprised. You shouldn’t be.
6 years... and this is the best that these arseholes can come up with?
More powerful vacuum cleaners.
We already have more powerful vacuum cleaners than we had before the stricter environmental regs were introduced… they want the regs changed to allow for less efficient ones… ie. ones that use more power, rather than have a more powerful action. Heavens knows why. Let’s just burn the planet to teach those pesky euro types that they can’t push us around.
Increase company profits; make the rich richer; make the poor poorer; sod the environment... What a list of the top 9 Brexit benefits.
Heavens knows why.
Because we don't like being told what to do by foreigners.
All the anti-EU sentiment really is that simple. Even if regulations are in our best interests; even if we aren't actually being told what to do by foreigners; even if in fact it is - well, was - us telling foreigners what to do. It doesn't have to have any bearing in reality or rationality. Incandescent lightbulbs, bananas of questionable bentness, vacuum cleaners, pounds and ounces, passport colours, it's all their fault. It'll be leaded fuel and bloody shillings next, mark my words.
You could tell people that Brussels has told us not to drink bleach and the gammon flag-shagger quarterwits would be down at Wilco tomorrow stripping the shelves clean of own-brand Domestos for no other reason than just to be ****ing contrary.
All the anti-EU sentiment really is that simple. Even if regulations are in our best interests; even if we aren’t actually being told what to do by foreigners; even if in fact it is – well, was – us telling foreigners what to do. It doesn’t have to have any bearing in reality or rationality.
Yep it’s a bit sad.
The fact they could only pick the best 9 out of 2000 as well, couldn’t even round it up tells you something of the er quality of the suggestions and actually having to ‘fish’ for benefits after you persuaded the people to vote for it would ring alarm bells.
Still flags out and wave.
To me the culmination of Brexit is that it is cloaking the U.K. in a mist of lies and the creation of a fantasy reality/history.
The years I lay in bed wanting to leave the EU so I could have an easier holiday pay calculation (said no one):-)
I really can’t get over something that most companies online payroll provider handles is even a ‘thing’.
(We managed it to do it when I worked in a shoe factory running the mainframe payroll software back in the day,printing payslips was fun).
From rees smogg's list up there ^^^
Number 9 - reduce requirements for electrical safety testing, including PAT.
H&S problem right there with added implications for negligence and corporate manslaughter.
What a half-wit.
One Tory trying to point out the obvious next step in the Brexit process…
You could tell people that Brussels has told us not to drink bleach and the gammon flag-shagger quarterwits would be down at Wilco tomorrow stripping the shelves clean of own-brand Domestos for no other reason than just to be ****ing contrary.
That really is rather well put.
TBH joining the Single Market would be a Brexit benefit as we couldn’t do it before(by virtue of er already being in it 🙂
In the long term pretty much expecting the U.K. to do something but it won’t be sold as a rejoining, a lot of Brexit pain goes away with it.
H&S problem right there with added implications for negligence and corporate manslaughter.
What a half-wit.
That’s the issue with the ebike and van thing as well TBh.
The electrical safety stuff isn’t even eu it’s a U.K. thing.
They may as well just close down the HSE and remove any requirements of the necessity of driving licences and drivers hours etc just have a big free for all.
Their voters love a health and safety ‘gorn mad’ when it’s not their kids dying in silly avoidable work accidents,HSE regs usually come in after someone’s proved the need for em.
TLDR ooh look a squirrel.
You could tell people that Brussels has told us not to drink bleach and the gammon flag-shagger quarterwits would be down at Wilco tomorrow stripping the shelves clean of own-brand Domestos for no other reason than just to be ****ing contrary.
It's also a pity no one thought of that before the referendum, a few bleach-related absences from the polling booth might have tipped the balance in favour of us grownups. 🤦
And no one would have realised they were in need of medical attention either - bright red and foaming at the mouth being normal for them. 🤣
Have we done the Tobias Elwood advocating re-joining the single market / customs union as a solution to cost of living, queues at Dover and The NI protocol yet?
Have we done the Tobias Elwood advocating re-joining the single market / customs union as a solution to cost of living, queues at Dover and The NI protocol yet?
Yes, might be on t'other thread, though.
I'm not surprised at one of these plonkers actually trying to suggest it as a 'Brexit Upgrade'.
What a shambles.
Edit - I see we have
I think Tobias Elwood has taken to trolling the headbangers now in control of the Tory party just to amuse himself and remind the nation that once upon a time, pre-2016, it did actually contain the odd sane person
Having met Mr Elwood and having had a short, but engaging conversation he did strike me as relatively sane as I’ve also encountered a few roasters like the grinning idiot, Liam Fox when he was SoS for Defence.
If a sensible compromise option (Norway style Single Market involvement) has to sold as “upgrading Brexit”, or “finishing Brexit”… so be it. As long as a route out of our current intransigence and self isolation can be sold to the voters… just get on with it. If only for the people of NI, and the GB SME’s being steadily cut out of all European markets (not just the EU).
Didn't we do this before? oh yeah, when we had the lorry driver shortage and they changed the rules and it led to 3 more lorrys being in the roads for 6 months due to the overwhelming uptake...