Unionist politicians are throwing fuel on this fire, they need to reign themselves in. The issues at the borders are being sorted according to the news, with a solution around groupage being found. A bit of patience is needed I think. There are too many unionist factions in N.I at the moment which is also driving tensions.

Maybe all the STW Scottish Nationalists can explain? I’m told its the good sort.

As someone that married into a family from Northern Ireland I think most people over simplify how the voting in a border poll would go and the issues it raises. The biggest being moving from a free at the point of use health service to a paid one (although with subsidises and exceptions for different groups).

Very much, I’ve commented about this on this thread myself. Its 50 euro for a doctors appointment for example. Would all the national insurance contributions be honoured by Westminster, the dail?

The offer needs to be something most unionists support, going from republicans being treated as third class citizens to unionists being treated as such, really isn’t the way forward

Sorry but I don’t think the third class bit is really relevant at this stage, its not the 60s. It is true though that all people in N.I are disadvantaged compared to the rest of the UK, our politics being partially to blame for this.

A question on the weekends events. Just asking for explanation BTW.

Is it within the powers of the EU commission to invoke article 16 without prior consultation with member states?

As Michael Martin wasn’t actually given prior notice about an issue which would affect his country.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was given no advance notice of the intention by the EU to trigger Article 16 of the NI Protocol.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55877649

I used to play violin, I’m really confused now.

Anyone see a koala in the bottom pic of the OP?

yes

Is netflix and drive the new netflix and chill?

He might be relying on a bit of global warming to bring those average temps up, 14 degrees C is not a comfortable temp.

Scotland has proportionately more MPs at Westminster than it would have in the EU parliament (Ireland for example has 13 out of 705). Scotland at Westminster 59 out of 650

Just a point on this. We have 18 MPs in N.Ireland but 7 of those don’t take their seats as they don’t recognise Westminster. So N.Ireland is actually represented by 11 MPs out of 650

Mefty in second rate uni shock 😜

Joking aside, don’t assume your experience is average – we all tend to, but we shouldn’t really

I went to Queens Belfast, wouldn’t say it was second rate and in all honesty I don’t remember Erasmus ever being mentioned to us. (Biological Sciences)

Erasmus only covered 2-3% of the undergraduate population, the new scheme aims to cover more than double that number with broader range of opportunities, difficult to see how that is a downgrade.

That sounds like a borderline…dare I say it….benefit?

I’m taking cover now

I’m not too serious with what I write here but;

Its the photography that gets me and the ooooh aaaaah reaction on FB.

“Photographer” drives to nice looking spot….gets out of car…flies drone to spot of interest…drone takes pic…gets back in car….drives home and edits….Posts on FB

Wheres the hard work? :D

Has my work suddenly lost value?

No, but your work was valued at that, as much as anything, because of where it was located.

OK but if I work in Leeds and earn Leeds wages and someone in the same company works from home in Leeds and earns London wages I’m pretty sure this is going to annoy me.

My question is around pay.

I was watching a Kirsty and Phil program at the weekend, with the home owner wanting to move North out of London.

My question is, why should an Employer continue to pay London wages to someone who is working from home elsewhere?

@Kelvin

You edited my question and answered a completely different one

So did we not take on Erasmus+ as it would mean that it would take away Uni places from rich students from other countries, willing to pay big money for the places?

You would perhaps miss what you’ve lost if you’d taken the opportunities you had, Dougie. And depriving others of them is unfair.

Thats what I’m getting at though, I had never heard of Erasmus, I didn’t know I was depriving anyone of anything. Just asked a colleague who did the same course as me and he hadn’t heard of it either.

There was this thing called Erasmus+, one of the aims of which was about ‘good’ citizenship and stronger ties. Living it, not forcing dull information through instructional teaching.

I went to a grammar school then on to Uni and I had never heard of Erasmus+ until I started looking on here. Couldn’t name one person I know who has benefited from it. Not saying its not a good thing or anything just that it doesn’t seem that important to most people. Only 1% of the EU student population even uses it.

Pretty sure we have PR in N.Ireland, not sure I would call it a very good system either.

Sitting behind a lorry in the current weather means you’ll drain a full washer bottle very quickly.

Are you saying that you want a hard border with the EU irrelevant of the damage to NI?

No.

This line of discussion started with me replying to a post about Biden. Please read what I’ve said it in that context.

There is no Brexit arrangement that can ensure the same level of all Island of Ireland cooperation and all UK cooperation. We are putting in new borders and divisions. With Britain not in the Customs Union and Single Market, this was always going to be the case. Any fudge will have some of the new divisions in the Irish sea, and some on the island itself… but it can’t do away with them entirely… we are dividing Great Britain from the EU… we are… the deficits of any fudge is down to our desire to divide ourselves from everyone else. NI isn’t coming entirely with us on that journey… even Johnson and Gove have realised that, with the arrangements that they negotiated and signed up to… despite claiming otherwise so many times.

I agree, but to say that the EU are not in some way ignoring certain terms of the GFA in order to make it work is wrong. N.I is caught between the interests of both.

Dougiedogg – thats sheer nonsense.

Sorry TJ its not, thats why the likes of Paisley and Sammy Wilson were so angry in parliament. The GFA is not just about the rights of irish to be irish.

As my company produces goods within the Single market in N.Ireland we can lorry freight through Rosslare if we choose. Airfreight from Belfast/Dublin. Also we can enjoy tarriff free access to the UK market as we produce basic pharma products (1994 WTO agreement places zero tariffs on around 7000 products, raw materials and excipients).

Thats how I understand it.

Dougie dogg – not at all. the EU have strongly defended it. The GFA says nothing about NI / Uk borders only about NI / republic

Its not so much the border though, its that the people of N.I are being unduly affected by it and are having their standard of life/rights as UK citizens diminished by it. That goes against the GFA, and is caused by the irish sea border / inclusion of N.I in the CU. This was agreed to as much by the EU as it was the UK.

Ergo, neither side are actually respecting the GFA.

willingness to tear up the GFA

Sorry to be picky, the EU are as much complicit in this as the UK thats why we have an Irish sea border. The EU has also chosen to ignore the GFA in these terms.

Was Bojo’s increase in defence spending an attempt to swing a slightly quicker chance at a UK-US trade deal? Considering the NATO minimum was supposed to be 2% I think, and all but the UK fall short of this.

What happens to my standard life pension in case of iScotland?

Nothing. Why would it change?

Sorry I jumped two steps to iScotland in EU. I was reading the piece below. It’s from here, quite old in fairness.

https://fullfact.org/scotland/pensions-independent-scotland/

Private pensions would be affected by EU law

While public service pensions would also continue to be protected, private pensions might be affected. Scotland’s accountancy body ICAS has said Scottish independence would have far-reaching implications for private-sector pensions due to European Union law. Pension schemes operating between Scotland and the rest of the UK would be classified as ‘cross-border’ after independence, and EU rules mean that if a pension scheme is run in more than one member state then it needs to immediately be fully funded rather than have a staged recovery plan. It says it remains unclear how this funding issue is likely to be satisfactorily resolved.

Edit, possibly not relevant now due to brexit.

What happens to my standard life pension in case of iScotland?

I’ve just worked out where the anti-cycling all started!

GOLDENEYE

The chase scene at the start of the film.

I’m not going to go searching because it’s pointless, but you know full well there were people on here expressing exactly this

This is true

Thanks folks

I’ve read somewhere that the powertrain of an EV accounts for around 51% of the total cost, is this correct? Not sure about the battery alone though.

What I’m saying is, if the battery pack and chassis for example are wholly produced in the UK does this account for the 55% origin requirement?

The 55% thing. Is it by parts value? Or sum total of parts (ie. % of total number of constituent parts?)

The biggest value component of electric vehicles is the battery and they have much fewer constituent parts.

I also can’t read/understand much of Edukators post as the links are to french papers, which I cannot read.

Well at least it wasn’t a bin full of rocks off a bridge.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/fra-mccaffery-west-belfast-rocks-19654029

Good news RE: Sunderland

This thread is reinforcing why I never eat scrambled eggs that aren’t cooked by myself

steel sauce pan and fork

eggs plus a yolk

butter

dash of cream

salt

scramble with the fork so you get very small peices, serve when just cooked, not hard. ( hard = yuck)

Serve with smoked salmon and wheaten bread (wholemeal soda).

I now know what you all mean about visitor centres, I was expecting a tourist in high viz waterproofs and boots to come walking round from behind a corner at any minute.

Also, I think the house looks like a crumpled up drinks can lying on it’s side.

That it is very likely that China are involved in genocide.