UK Politics

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**r_squared**

Compel wrote:
I can't be the only one that's thinking that the world would be better off if May does manage to position herself at a point that Trump listens to her, rather than Putin.

May isn't Thatcher, Trump isn't Reagan, it's not the 80s, and Trump has Huge man crush on Putin. There is no way Trump is going to listen to a word May says, he only respects strength, and we've just weakened ourselves.
If we're first in the queue now, it's so that Trump can grab our collective pussy, and give it a squeeze.

What a delightful image.

**Ketara**

r_squared wrote:
Compel wrote:
I can't be the only one that's thinking that the world would be better off if May does manage to position herself at a point that Trump listens to her, rather than Putin.

May isn't Thatcher, Trump isn't Reagan, it's not the 80s, and Trump has Huge man crush on Putin. There is no way Trump is going to listen to a word May says, he only respects strength, and we've just weakened ourselves.
If we're first in the queue now, it's so that Trump can grab our collective pussy, and give it a squeeze.

What a delightful image.

He is a bit of a specimen, isn't he?

Our best interests right now, are to convince him that doing an informal and mutually beneficial deal with us quickly is in his political interests. Which, conveniently, it actually is. Hence his rhetoric of late. Once we've got that informally in the bag to use as a bargaining chip in our EU negotiations, all we need to do then is stay conveniently quiet until everything is done and signed with us, the EU, and America (so three years?), and then wave him goodbye two years or so later (hopefully).

We shouldn't suck up to him, but by the same measure, diplomacy and a measure of cautious silence will likely be our best strategy for dealing with Washington in the years ahead. Don't support, but don't condemn. He'll most likely be too busy picking economic fights with China to bother paying attention to us once he's used our deal to stick one in the eye of the Europeans.

**Silent Puffin?**

So free trade deals are only bad with brownish and or yellowish people then?

**Kilkrazy**

Trump will be history in four years. The question is how much damage he can do before his term ends.

It's ironic that the great champion of stopping international free trade urgently wants a free trade deal with the UK and not with Canada, etc.

**Graphite**

So, Norn Ireland elections. From the point of view of those of my fellow countrymen still over there, what are the chances of this election being held on anything other than the same old tribal lines and actually trying to achieve something? I mean with Brexit looming, there's an actual real issue that the Assembly is going to have to deal with on the way, rather than just blaming it on "them 'uns"

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Graphite wrote:
So, Norn Ireland elections. From the point of view of those of my fellow countrymen still over there, what are the chances of this election being held on anything other than the same old tribal lines and actually trying to achieve something? I mean with Brexit looming, there's an actual real issue that the Assembly is going to have to deal with on the way, rather than just blaming it on "them 'uns"

It's Northern Ireland. Unionists will vote for Unionist parties, and Nationalists will vote for Nationalist parties. And nothing changes...

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kilkrazy wrote:
Trump will be history in four years. The question is how much damage he can do before his term ends.

It's ironic that the great champion of stopping international free trade urgently wants a free trade deal with the UK and not with Canada, etc.

I'm happy to have a trade deal with the USA, but not at any price

I've said it before, but I do not trust the Tories with this nation's future. They are corrupt and self serving.

They will flog our assets to anybody with money, privatise anything that isn't nailed down, and turn us into some giant tax haven with gak poor wages and low corporation tax.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Oddly, Tax Haven may not be so bad, depending on how it's done.

If it's done to get lots of international companies reporting as UK based, tax revenues would go up - which in theory, would mean we could properly fund the NHS, education etc.

But you're right. With the Tories in, expect the poopy end of the stick to get ever poopier.

**Graphite**

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

It's Northern Ireland. Unionists will vote for Unionist parties, and Nationalists will vote for Nationalist parties. And nothing changes...

Granted. But any chance that it'll be a different batch of Unionist and Nationalist parties? The DUP doesn't seem to have been covering themselves with glory of late. I mean, they're all complete headcases but there are degrees of crazy, y'know?

**Future War Cultist**

I was just saying that regretably nothing is going to change here after this election. The tribal lines are too entrenched. And as the recent budget crisis here demonstrated as well, when faced with real issues they always retreat into their little comfort blankets. They're all the sorriest bunch of excuses for politicians in the western world, and that's really saying something.

@ DIKLT

Although I'm happy to hear a UK-US trade deal is on the table I'm hoping it's not another rerun of TTIP.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oddly, Tax Haven may not be so bad, depending on how it's done.

If it's done to get lots of international companies reporting as UK based, tax revenues would go up - which in theory, would mean we could properly fund the NHS, education etc.

But you're right. With the Tories in, expect the poopy end of the stick to get ever poopier.

It was embarrassing to see Gove behave like that in the USA.

The incident concerning the Israeli diplomat, Liam Fox's previous, and the links between the Conservatives and Israel, is another major concern for me, not to mention the way this nation is sucking up to the Saudis and the Chinese.

I do not trust the Tories an inch. Long experience tells me that it's Conservative party first, Britain Second...

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Graphite wrote:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

It's Northern Ireland. Unionists will vote for Unionist parties, and Nationalists will vote for Nationalist parties. And nothing changes...

Granted. But any chance that it'll be a different batch of Unionist and Nationalist parties? The DUP doesn't seem to have been covering themselves with glory of late. I mean, they're all complete headcases but there are degrees of crazy, y'know?

No offence to Northern Ireland members, but in my experience, when people start talking about 'new' parties in NI, the following usually happens:

Unionists stop voting for the DUP and start voting for PUD.

Nationalists stop voting for Sinn Fein, and start voting for Fein Sinn.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Future War Cultist wrote:
I was just saying that regretably nothing is going to change here after this election. The tribal lines are too entrenched. And as the recent budget crisis here demonstrated as well, when faced with real issues they always retreat into their little comfort blankets. They're all the sorriest bunch of excuses for politicians in the western world, and that's really saying something.

@ DIKLT

Although I'm happy to hear a UK-US trade deal is on the table I'm hoping it's not another rerun of TTIP.

A deal is fine in my book, but not at any price.

**Future War Cultist**

@ DINLT

We have a golden opportunity here but I'm sure they'll still feth it up.

**Ketara**

Silent Puffin? wrote:
So free trade deals are only bad with brownish and or yellowish people then?

Brownish AND yellow?

You do say the strangest things sometimes. I mean, are they striped, or is it more of a polkadot pattern? I can't say I've ever met someone who looked like that.

I mean heck, outside of Simpsons, I've never even seen a yellow person. I'd personally welcome Homer if he comes on a trade deal though!

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Dunno. Homer could easily outwit the current shower pretending to be merely running the show and not running it into the ground.

**Ketara**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Dunno. Homer could easily outwit the current shower pretending to be merely running the show and not running it into the ground.

See, the great thing is that I don't assume the administration on the other side are any better, so we might be in with a chance. I mean, have you seen some of Trump's appointments?

**Future War Cultist**

My dream scenario for here would be for Alliance and the SDLP to run the place but a more realistic goal would be for the Ulster unionists and SDLP to do it. Sadly though we'll probably still have the DUP and SF in charge.

**A Town Called Malus**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oddly, Tax Haven may not be so bad, depending on how it's done.

If it's done to get lots of international companies reporting as UK based, tax revenues would go up - which in theory, would mean we could properly fund the NHS, education etc.

But you're right. With the Tories in, expect the poopy end of the stick to get ever poopier.

No. Tax Haven status would be terrible for the UK. What they don't tell you is that in order to support themselves, tax havens often have massively increased costs of living for the people living in them.

**reds8n**

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/17/apple-ios-mac-app-store-prices-rise-25-per-cent-following-brexit

Apple increases App Store prices by 25% following Brexit vote
Price rises for iOS and Mac users announced in an email to developers, following a 19% fall in the value of the pound

.. sounds dreadful....

The new prices enshrine parity between the dollar and the pound, at least for apps on the iOS and Mac app stores. An app that costs $0.99 in the US, and used to cost £0.79, will now cost £0.99.

oh, then again....

Going back to the Gove interview , the German journalist who interviewed Trump alongside Gove has this .... WTF .... section on his Wikipedia

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

Kai Diekmann sued the Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung, after, on 8 May 2002, the paper's satire page "Die Wahrheit" (The Truth) claimed that he had sought an operation to use parts of corpses to enlarge his allegedly extremely small penis. Diekmann sued the paper for 30,000 Euro in damages for illegal violations of his privacy as well as libel and defamation of character. A Berlin court ruled that there was indeed negligence on the part of the newspaper, but denied the monetary compensation demanded by Diekmann saying that, as editor of Bild, he "consciously seeks economic advantage from the violation of others' privacy" and therefore "is less heavily burdened by the violation of his own privacy," and furthermore that he should "assume that those standards that he lays on others are also of importance for himself."[4] An appeal against the ruling was given no chance of success by the higher court and both sides withdrew their appeals.[5]

.. which is baffling in several ways

**Kilkrazy**

PM May wants the UK to become a more tolerant society.

How is that going to work by pandering to people who dislike immigrants while chiding the rest of us for not getting with the programme?

**reds8n**

Oh that's easy.

It means if a USA president mentions that Brexit might be bad you fly into a fury and spit feathers and bile everywhere.

But then if the next one says about Brexit that is more to your liking you remain oddly silent.

**wuestenfux**

Diekmann and Bild are a joke. Don't take them serious. People with Uni education don't read Bild and the rest only reads it out of curiosity.

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Bild fits to Trump very well. He's an idiot. Nothing else.

**Skullhammer**

Well mays speach seems to have worked as the pound is up 2.5% against the dollar and 1% against the euro, uk futures are all up the only minor downside is 58point drop in an over inflated ftse 100.

**Kilkrazy**

Bad news for our exporters.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Bad news for importers as well.

More red tape etc once we're out.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Pound up against the dollar, we're leaving the single market, and Brussels told to stick their customs union where the sun don't shine.

You can't stop the signal baby!

TBO, I am slightly surprised. I honestly thought we'd get a wishy-washy, half way house, Nick Clegg style compromise, but here we are.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kilkrazy wrote:
Bad news for our exporters.

Apart from forgeworld, and spivs shuffling paper money around in London, what do we export these days?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Bad news for importers as well.

More red tape etc once we're out.

We're taking back control

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

No, we're handing control to a bunch of sociopathic imbeciles who to date have proven only their gross incompetence....

Plus, y'know - the harridan has to get it through Parliament, yes?

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
No, we're handing control to a bunch of sociopathic imbeciles who to date have proven only their gross incompetence....

Plus, y'know - the harridan has to get it through Parliament, yes?

True, but Parliament might not have a big say on this. No doubt there are those who think that Parliament could block this and reserve Brexit, but if the EU tells us to take it or leave, then Parliament will suddenly realise that its authority stops at Dover...

The Irish courts are trying to find out if article 50 is reversible or not, but logically, it has to be, otherwise every nation would use the threat of leaving to shake down a better deal from Brussels.

Parliament may have to put up or shut up. It's why these grumblings from Parliament and assorted court cases no longer bother me, because the politics and momentum has left them for dust.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Funniest bit?

Freedom of Movement isn't going to give the racist element what they want.

As a country, we need immigration to sustain our economy, because of how lop-sided it is.

So whilst we might see a reduction in the apparently much feared Eastern European migrant, we'll likely have to up numbers of brahhhhn people, and others from the Commonwealth.

Dear oh dear!

**Skullhammer**

As an added all the major european futures (greman/french& italian) are down and the pound is up against everthing (+2.85% against the dollar). So it seems that bisnesses liked what they heard, and to frank that is brexit there never was a soft/hard/gray version as anything less was not leaving the eu.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Skullhammer wrote:
As an added all the major european futures (greman/french& italian) are down and the pound is up against everthing (+2.85% against the dollar). So it seems that bisnesses liked what they heard, and to frank that is brexit there never was a soft/hard/gray version as anything less was not leaving the eu.

Let the good times roll

**Frozocrone**

Full speech in written text for anyone interested

Well...at least businesses liked it. I think we won't see the actual effects until 2-3 years when we actually seperate and then 10 years to see how it's affected us.