MEANWHILE, IN THE EU
By Pete Moore On February 7th, 2019Paris has taken the extraordinary step of recalling its ambassador from Rome, in the worst crisis between the two neighbouring countries since the second world war.
Top banter. The extremist Macron, president of France, is a bit upset that Luigi Di Maio, one of two Italian deputy prime ministers alongside the moderate Salvini, has met with leaders of the gilets jaunes. France and Italy haven’t been getting along lately. And who can blame Rome when you see the haughty, globalist Macron?
I hope it’s a blueprint for future relations across the EU. In fact I hope that MI6 is gearing up to spread discontent. If not, why are we paying them?
Oh no ! A war between France and Italy. The cheese eating Vichy collaboraters and the run a mile in a minute Pasta munchers . It’s the end of the world as we know it 😉
A miniscule blimp in comparison to the Pandora’s Box that’s been opened on British society.
Oh No Paul, according to the Daily Express – Harri’s paper of record – this spat between France and Italy has the whole EU on the brink of imploding !!
Surely you mean
Has THE WHOLE EU on the brink of IMPLODING !!
The sExpress like to put their OUTRAGE and SENSATIONALISM in block capitals just in case their readers don’t understand the message they’re trying to impart.
By Paul McMahon..aged 12.
Meanwhile in the EU:
https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/07/watch-live-tajani-and-verhofstadt-speak-after-meeting-with-may
Looks like a deal is achieveable after all?
It is precisely the kind of stunt the French used to pull. DeGualle meeting with Quebec separists in Canada, a nation whose soldiers landed on Normandy to liberate his country.
The draft withdrawal agreement failed the UK’s ratification process, mainly because of the backstop. No change, no deal.
A few days ago May promised the ERG that the backstop will go. Now she’s telling the EU it will stay. Apparently this is how Brexiteers got us in a mess.
//has met with leaders of the gilets jaunes.//
One can be certain of so few things in life. But you can be pretty sure that anything on which English right-wingers and French leftie intellectuals agree must be completely wrong.
Yep, the DUP humiliatingly slapping down the Brit PM after a deal had been negotiated in December.
Pete, you once told me that the dissolution of the UK would be a price worth paying for Brexit. Do you think the backstop would be worth a Brexit deal?
No. The backstop keeps us in the EU. We voted to leave.
I’m speaking specifically about a backstop confined to the state of NI.
As we know, the Italian people recently voted for Italy to remain Italian, and that does not sit well with the clique that runs ‘Europe’. That clique is especially well entrenched in France and if the gilets jaunes reckon that the clique will be voted out of power, they really need some more rubber bullets in their skulls. The clique that rules France really does want the French to be replaced by something a bit darker which, as Sarkozy told the French, will be an “obligation”. French cinema is giving the French the message…….
https://diversitymachtfrei.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/serial-bad-weddings-2-more-kalergi-propaganda-from-france/
I’m sure that you used that one about 6 months ago. This makes Paul 12-1/2
Robert Peston nails it here. Both the Tories and Labour are deeply split on Brexit and the liklehood is that a no-deal Brexit will be the result, because both May and Corbyn will put party unity first, political pigmies that they are:
“Is it remotely plausible that order can emerge from this utter chaos, that some kind of stable route either out of the EU or even to remain in the EU could yet transpire? It is very difficult to see how, unless and until either May or Corbyn is prepared to call the other’s bluff – and put the national interest ahead of narrower party interest.
The fundamental point is that it is now impossible to conceive of a Brexit deal which secures the majority support of MPs across the House of Commons which would not simultaneously break up either the Tory Party or the Labour Party or – more probably – both parties. In other words, if Corbyn’s and May’s first choice is what they claim, namely a negotiated Brexit, then they will at some point have to agree a Brexit deal between them that brings the high probability of significant members of their own parliamentary colleagues feeling so alienated that they break away from their respective parties.
Link:
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/02/britain-is-heading-for-a-brexit-tragedy/
BREXIT has shown British politics to be in a very sorry state.
Let us recap. It was a Pro-EU, Remain PM that offered a referendum to the British electorate. It was a predominantly pro-EU and Remain HoC and HoL (Parliament) that passed the legislation on said referendum and set the questions for said referendum. ie Leave the EU or Remain in the EU ? All party Leaders in the HoC campaigned for the UK to Remain in the EU. The majority of the HoC campaigned to Remain in the EU. Remain lost. Cameron resigned and, a pro-EU and Remain Tory party elected a new leader who campaigned to Remain and is pro-EU. She called a GE in which both Tory and Labour promised to implement the will of the people – ie Leave the EU. Both got a sizable mandate from the people. Now we have Remain MP’s and a Remain government negotiating BREXIT with a Remain Civil Service pulling the strings.
Question: At what point, apart from the referendum itself, have any true BREXITIERS been involved ? Very few and all in minor positions.
If BREXIT turns out to be a train wreck then it is because Remainers conspired it to be so.
Oh ! And before I go, I see the EU Paymaster General is going to have a few difficulties stumping up more ca$h post BREXIT.
Not from the sExpress
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2019/feb/06/german-recession-fears-factory-orders-brexit-stock-markets-business-live
Mark,
Your recap claims that a Remain PM gave you the referendum. A predominantly Remain Parliament passed the legislation for the referendum and a Remain Tory party and a pro Remain Parliament enacted Art 50.
Oh please, are you seriously trying to suggest that the absolute fuck up that is current British politics isn’t because Leave failed to prepare for Brexit and had no plan B contingency whatsoever, (see Boris below), but because Remain gave you a public referendum, passed legislation to have the referendum and then enacted Art 50?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/07/billboard-campaigners-brexit-led-by-donkeys#img-2
This is what Labour promised in their 2017 manifesto:
(p.24)
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/labour-manifesto-2017.pdf
Paul
No Paul. I am saying Cameron was the PM at the time of the Referendum, he backed the Remain campaign. He also failed to plan for a Leave result.
But hey, what do I, or you for that matter know ? I just go by what people who actually are part of the ‘System’ of government say.
Oops !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37360386
Oh. And here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/20/david-cameron-accused-gross-negligence-brexit-contingency-plans
Mark, Cameron was certainly irresponsible in buckeling to the Eurosceptics in the Con Party and calling a referendum but he resigned immediately after losing.
Where were the ERG? Where were Vote Leave? Where were Leave.EU? Where were the sExpress? Where were the
LieMail? Where were the Sun etc? Did they really expect Cameron to give them their referendum so they could campaign to leave and then expect to shoulder none of theresponsibility for the situation they created?The old adage of ‘be careful wha you wish for you might just get it’ is highly appropriate here.
Cameron was responsible for iniating an ill thought out referendum at the behest of a broad church of anti Euros. The same anti Euros that are responsible for the present shit storm in Brit politics.
It’s the major problem with referendums.
A party (or candidate etc…) runs for office and gets elected. If they do well they get reelected. If they fuck up they lose and someone else gets a chance. It reinforces good governance (for the most part – it can also encourage populist crowd pleasing gestures). It is also why parliamentary governance is the ideal. In more complex systems like the US it is harder to pinpoint who is to blame for bad governance (the President or Congress; the Supreme Court or Congress; the Supreme Court or the President).
The problem with referendums is that if it fucks things up then who do you blame – and who do you turn to to fix it? The electorate aren’t going to blame the electorate. And you can’t replace the electorate with a better electorate.
That certainly applies to the DUP. They campaigned enthusiastically for Brexit, but the more thoughtful of them must be having second thoughts now, because Brexit has been the gift that keeps giving to Sinn Fein and has put the border back in the centre of politics in the UK:
“Several cabinet ministers have told the BBC a no-deal Brexit could lead to a vote on Irish unification. One senior minister said the prospect is “very real” and very much on the prime minister’s mind. A second cabinet minister warned the government risked “sleepwalking into a border poll”. And a third cabinet minister said there was an understanding in government that a vote on unification would be a “realistic possibility” if the UK leaves the EU without a deal next month.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47170711
Wow.
Can the DUP block an Irish Unification referendum ?
Peter, I found this interesting, from the Spectator no less. Is this the Conservative Party firing a warning shot over the DUP’s bows not to push them too far?
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/02/a-referendum-on-irish-unity-might-be-the-best-way-to-solve-the-brexit-border-issue/?fbclid=IwAR008BoRK8iaEJNs1BX2I0aa57oaUlf1UeGLe1IhB86dcahtz3djQGXYMP0
Yes Paul, I read that a few days ago. An opinion poll of English Tory members (not MPs) a few months ago showed that (I think) 75% of them were prepared to risk the peace process in Ireland and the union with Scotland in order to get the hard Brexit that most of them want.
Colm, this is from S1, (para 2), of theNorthern Ireland Act 1998, the UK legislative provision which underpins the Good Friday Agreement
To answer your question, although it’s never been tested, I would say that it’s very unlikely the DUP could block a border poll if and when it’s called.
Paul –
Again, no.
Brussels and Dublin want NI to be the price to be paid for a British Brexit. A PM worthy of the office would long ago have stopped that dangerous game.
Again, the UK joined (was lied into) the EC. The UK held a referendum, The UK voted to leave, so the UK must leave.
Northern Ireland’s status is clearly outlined in the Belfast Agreement, and that it’s governed by consent. There has been total agreement on this. A Downing Street/Dublin/Brussels stitch up, which effectively cleaves NI out of the UK, is therefore not only dangerous but also unlawful. It would break the terms of the Belfast Agreement and possibly give unionist headbangers an excuse to get lary again.
One day NI will – in my opinion – vote to secede from the UK. Come that day, fine. Goodnight and good luck. Unionists can stay where they are or move to GB. If it happens by the vote it must go forward and go forward peacefully. But anything which circumvents that day must be resisted.
I read a proposal today that could resolve the Backstop impasse. It could be agreed that the backstop be dropped in place of a commitment to hold a referendum in Northern Ireland on whether to choose to stay in the EU customs union or not in the event of no agreed free trade deal between the U.K. and EU at the end of the transition period. Any thoughts from the panel ?
Italy and France are having a bit of a ding-dong:
“A diplomatic row between France and Italy has deepened, with France complaining of “unfounded attacks and outlandish claims” by Italian leaders. France recalled its ambassador to Italy for talks on Thursday, saying the situation was “unprecedented” since the end of World War Two. It comes after Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio met French “yellow-vest” protesters near Paris on Tuesday. France warned him not to interfere in the country’s politics.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47161500
Colm
That proposal is way too sensible to stand a chance.
That’s what I thought. In the wake of the referendum result going the way you wanted it to go you’re dissolution of the UK would be a price worth paying for Brexit seems to have gone the way of you’re the UK will not leave the Single Market.
That says quite a lot about personal integrity.
Only if there were cast iron guaruntees that that commitment was absolutely binding and tied to a definite timescale, say three months, to hold the referendum.
Paul –
And your comments say alot about what you think of the Belfast Agreement.
If the people of NI wish to leave the UK, as a result of the UK leaving the EU, then fine. So be it. That’s their choice. They can vote themselves out of the UK and back into the EU. I’d wish them well, knowing that we’d still be friends.
To attempt to cleave NI out of the UK, as the price of a British Brexit, is the act of political gangsters.
How so? Go on Pete, go for it. Give us Trimble’s as yet unidentified court case proposal.
I can live with that. Although it still doesn’t change what you previously said and your volte face after things went your way.
It is exactly in line with what I said. Chucking NI overboard for a British Brexit is not acceptable, probably nullifies the Belfast Agreement, and encourages terrorism. If that’s what you want them you say it.
If NI wants to go another way, as a result of the UK leaving the EU, then NI can vote on that.
Although it was prior to the referendum?
Yeah, ‘probably’