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Brexit
Aug 21, 2018 13:48:54 GMT
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Post by Stephen on Aug 21, 2018 13:48:54 GMT
I like him as a character and he is much better than most British Politicians... But I think he is very much a classical Liberal Capitalist. Which is not for me 馃榾
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Post by cato on Sept 24, 2018 11:48:48 GMT
The shameless move to undo Brexit is gathering steam. The labour party is moving towards pushing a second (people's vote) despite the fact a majority of labour supporters supported Brexit.A second vote would most likely cause a constitutional crisis in the Uk. The obvious question is why should Brexiteers accept anything other that an overwhelming change of mind if a second vote happens. What about a third people's vote? The Brexit cause naturally be livid. Support for the real far right will most likely increase. Britian will become more deeply split. Is this really what people want?
Brexit however is bad news for us in Ireland. Even if all goes perfectly we lose our biggest strategic ally in the EU. The UK and Ireland often support each other at the negiotating table. I don't know what our future strategy is. I assume we do have one....
France and Germany are hostile to our Corporation tax rates as are other EU states. We are highly dependent on foreign investment currently. As much as I detest Apple Google et al a withdrawal by them from Ireland would cause terrible financial damage. An economic crisis would not benefit conservatism but the hard left.
Brexit makes us weaker politically in the EU club. The loss of British cash means we all need to pay more to Brussels too. This year we paid in one billion euros more than we got out. This is only going to increase.
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Post by cato on Dec 11, 2018 22:38:27 GMT
Brexit has moved into crisis territory. Jacob Rees Mogg has likened the EU to the Soviet Union . You can join but you are not allowed to leave.
The shaby sneaky stubborn and bullying approach of the EU to negiotations show how hollow the EU's pretensions at being a force for good is in reality. Popular Democracy cannot be trusted. This is a lesson the Danes and the Irish know well.
May has made a mistake in taking personal control of negiotations. A former remainer it seems her heart was never in it. A divided party and a divided opposition has made life much more difficult. It is difficult however I think to push a radical new departure based on a very small majority.
The Irish political and media establishment are relentlessly hostile to Brexit. Anglophobia is one the few acceptable prejudices openly encouraged in 2018 Ireland. I suspect at some level our rage is linked to our decision 100 years ago to leave the British Empire. Financial well being now trumps national self determination in Ireland.
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Post by assisi on Dec 12, 2018 15:12:44 GMT
A couple of weeks ago in the 'Irish Catholic' Mary Kenny had a short comment on Theresa May extolling her strength and endurance during the Brexit tribulations and putting this down to her being a strong woman and the values she had inherited as the daughter of a Church of England vicar.
I was pretty gobsmacked by this as the set of values I see Theresa May displaying are the opposite. Failure to deliver a clean break with the EU as the voters wanted, inability to resign and allow a Brexiteer to agree a deal (May was a remainer), reneging on her early Brexit vision outlined in her Lancaster gate speech as well as keeping her cabinet out of the picture too often.
I normally agree with Mary Kenny on most things but found it slightly disturbing that has managed to somehow make a purse out of a sow's ear.
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Brexit
Dec 12, 2018 15:28:46 GMT
Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 12, 2018 15:28:46 GMT
A couple of weeks ago in the 'Irish Catholic' Mary Kenny had a short comment on Theresa May extolling her strength and endurance during the Brexit tribulations and putting this down to her being a strong woman and the values she had inherited as the daughter of a Church of England vicar. I was pretty gobsmacked by this as the set of values I see Theresa May displaying are the opposite. Failure to deliver a clean break with the EU as the voters wanted, inability to resign and allow a Brexiteer to agree a deal (May was a remainer), reneging on her early Brexit vision outlined in her Lancaster gate speech as well as keeping her cabinet out of the picture too often. I normally agree with Mary Kenny on most things but found it slightly disturbing that has managed to somehow make a purse out of a sow's ear. Mary Kenny is extremely erratic. It's hard to find any consistent logic in her positions. I give her credit for independent-mindedness, and also for her excellent book Goodbye to Catholic Ireland (which I've read twice), but sometimes she just seems, to be frank, muddled.
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Brexit
Dec 12, 2018 16:49:11 GMT
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Post by cato on Dec 12, 2018 16:49:11 GMT
A couple of weeks ago in the 'Irish Catholic' Mary Kenny had a short comment on Theresa May extolling her strength and endurance during the Brexit tribulations and putting this down to her being a strong woman and the values she had inherited as the daughter of a Church of England vicar. I was pretty gobsmacked by this as the set of values I see Theresa May displaying are the opposite. Failure to deliver a clean break with the EU as the voters wanted, inability to resign and allow a Brexiteer to agree a deal (May was a remainer), reneging on her early Brexit vision outlined in her Lancaster gate speech as well as keeping her cabinet out of the picture too often. I normally agree with Mary Kenny on most things but found it slightly disturbing that has managed to somehow make a purse out of a sow's ear. When May congratulated Leo Varadkar on the repeal of the 8th amendment the scales fell from my eyes. It came a across as a little pat on the head for the Paddies who has finally decided to butcher their own unborn. Apart from anything else it was none of her bloody business.
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Brexit
Dec 12, 2018 17:02:41 GMT
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Post by cato on Dec 12, 2018 17:02:41 GMT
The Brexit obsessed Irish media are studiously ignoring the Italian budget standoff which could lead to another Euro crisis. With our huge debts this is the last thing we need.
Similarly they seem oblivious to the economic and foreign policies of Mr Corbyn which could wreck the Uk if he ever gets elected. Having a European Venezula next door to Ireland will make all the current Brexitsteria look rather like the children's tale of the sky falling down.
Rocky times ahead.
I do think the heave against May is misplaced ,unless a new prime minister is going to get very confrontational with the EU which is in no one's best interest. The Tories may formally breakup over this allowing Corbyn's crew to come to power.
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Brexit
Dec 12, 2018 17:44:33 GMT
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Post by cato on Dec 12, 2018 17:44:33 GMT
In the very unlikely event any Tory MPs will read this perhaps they should take a leaf out of Michael Collin's attitude to another unsatisfactory deal - the 1922 Treaty.
The current deal is not ideal . It doesn't give them all they want but it can be worked and developed to eventually give them most of what they hope to get. The big mistake would be to have a pointless civil war .
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Post by assisi on Dec 19, 2018 9:54:48 GMT
For any Northerners reading, there is a petition to 'Leave the EU without a deal in March 2019' which the UK government must debate if over 100,000 emails are amassed. You may want to sign at the link below. Obviously it would be better to leave with a deal that actually means 'leave'. But I think leaving without a deal is better than what I think would be the disastrous scenario, another referendum to overturn the original result. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229963
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 19, 2018 10:21:35 GMT
For any Northerners reading, there is a petition to 'Leave the EU without a deal in March 2019' which the UK government must debate if over 100,000 emails are amassed. You may want to sign at the link below. Obviously it would be better to leave with a deal that actually means 'leave'. But I think leaving without a deal is better than what I think would be the disastrous scenario, another referendum to overturn the original result. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229963If there is a second Brexit referendum, I think I will stop believing in democracy.
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Post by cato on Dec 19, 2018 17:57:34 GMT
[/quote]If there is a second Brexit referendum, I think I will stop believing in democracy. [/quote]
The EU , the Irish government and most remainers are such sneaks and bullies that I believe this could very well be on the cards.
Mrs May must be feeling immense pressure to do an Irish government style rerun - the so called "People's Referendum"! The arrogance of that title - as if the Brexit referendum , the biggest turn out to date in British history to date was somehow a non people's referendum!
Many observers believe a second referendum will get a similar result. Will the remainers then stop whinging and help make Brexit work? And if somehow a second referendum reverses the result by a similar margin what's to stop the Brexiteers demanding yet another referendum in the same arrogant spirit of the Remain campaign. Best of three anyone?
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Post by cato on Jan 15, 2019 17:18:58 GMT
Tonight it looks like the Brexit deal is likely to be rejected by a margin of 200 seats ie 2/3s of all members of parliament. That is a pretty unprecendented government defeat on a core piece of national policy.
It has been a long 2 years since the referendum. The losing side didn't accept their defeat and was determined to use every tactic to frustrate the outcome.
Mrs May a former remainer got a terrible deal from the EU. The same EU gave David Cameron a lousy deal when he tried to get the EU to give Britian consessions to stay in the EU, before the referendum .
This hard line policy backed by the Irish government may in time be seen as incredibly foolish and short sighted. The idea this will cause the British to reconsider and that Brexit will vanish like a bad dream is dangerous arrogance.
Ireland which has a vested long term national interest in having the best possible relationship with the UK has chosen to take the side of Brussels in making a hard unpleasant Brexit deal. Again this is something we may regret.
We do live in an new age of unpredictability.
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Post by S茅amus on Jan 16, 2019 8:55:11 GMT
On a lighter note- Someone was musing on what other countries would hypothetically call their EU leaving (not sure if someone put this in before?) Departugal? Finish? Italeave? Oustria? Czechout? Byegium-unlikely. Slovakout-don't really get that one. One country will never hold a referendum- Remania.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 16, 2019 9:21:39 GMT
On a lighter note- Someone was musing on what other countries would hypothetically call their EU leaving (not sure if someone put this in before?) Departugal? Finish? Italeave? Oustria? Czechout? Byegium-unlikely. Slovakout-don't really get that one. One country will never hold a referendum- Remania. And perhaps "French leave" for our Gallic cousins! Poland could perform a Pole vault, and Slovakia could also have a Slovak-uation... My favourite is Czechout, though. One of my Facebook friends, the Irish language poet and retired academic Ciaran 脫 Coigligh, claims to have invented the Irish term, "Breatimeacht", which is regularly used. He's very much a chap who would fit in here, in terms of his beliefs...I had the pleasure of meeting him once.
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Brexit
Jan 18, 2019 9:57:57 GMT
Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 18, 2019 9:57:57 GMT
Kudos to the Irish Times for printing this pro-Brexit piece. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brexit-exposes-elitist-rot-at-heart-of-westminster-1.3761573All the excitement over the vote this week did seem somewhat contrived, since everybody knew what was going to happen. Nigel Farage has described himself as the most pessimistic of Brexiteers at the moment and believes there will be a second referendum. He seems quite confident it will be won. I'm not, although I didn't expect Leave to win the first, either.
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