Brexit.

[Kara Spengler]

Just a thought, admittedly maybe a bit short-sided... why not just hand Northern Ireland over to the Republic of Ireland? Wouldn't be the first time that a country was united with its neighbor...

"a bit short sighted"?

"I will take 'understatements of the millennium for 1000 please Alex.'

 

[Chin Rey]

This post should be superfluous since it's all obvious for anybody to see but

Just a thought, admittedly maybe a bit short-sided... why not just hand Northern Ireland over to the Republic of Ireland? Wouldn't be the first time that a country was united with its neighbor...

In addition to the problems others already have mentioned, that would only be an even more extreme variant of the backstop the hardcore Brexiters are so much against so that wouldn't solve anything as far as they are concerned.

The dillemma they face but refuse to aknowledge is:
+ They want - or at least have to accept - an open border between EU and Northern Ireland
+ They demand an open border between Northern Ireland and the rest of UK
+ They can not accept an open border between UK and EU

Anybody with a working braincell or two can see that this is impossible to achieve yet it is exactly what the hardcore Brexiters expect May and EU to deliver. It's this total denial of reality that more than anything else has caused the mess the United Kingdom has gotten itself into.

 

[Tigger]

I don't have the deep knowledge some of you have about this. However there are posts in this thread which are obviously clueless.

Funny thing, the vast majority of people who voted in the referendum were equally clueless. I was. I voted remain based on personal issues - my family in Spain and the fact I was actively involved in buying a house in France to move to, a process I initially continued hoping for things to resolve themselves sensibly.

However, since the vote and the arguments that followed over trade agreements, WTO terms, the way that the EU actually works and what they do, a lot of us have had to educate ourselves in order to sift through the bullshit (EU wants to ban kids from playing conkers! Eu demands we rename British chocolate to vegelate!), the uninformed (unelected EU Eurocrats control british laws!) and conspiracy theory (EU plans to merge UK with France).

Personally I know more about the structure of the EU and EU law making, the WTO, how tariffs and tariff quotas work, what NTBs are and so on than I ever imagined I could learn. I did at least already know a fair bit about supply chains having been involved in the development of software for supply chain management at the end of the 90s.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Just a thought, admittedly maybe a bit short-sided... why not just hand Northern Ireland over to the Republic of Ireland? Wouldn't be the first time that a country was united with its neighbor...

Lookup "Good Friday Agreement" and do research it by yourself.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Although I avidly follow this thread, one of the reasons I almost never comment is that I simply don't have the historical and political knowledge to make informed opinions. I've learned a great deal, but still have a long way to go before I could make a meaningful contribution.

Thank you so much to all of you who do contribute to this insightful and informative discussion. I appreciate Eighth's posts as well because she provides giant gaping potholes of ignorance. I benefit from the answers other people are tossing into that void.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

While I wholly agree with Patrick Stewart in the video, I must point out that the European Court of Human Rights is an organ of the European Convention on Human Rights, not the European Union (though the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights is a broadly similar document).

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Excellent and informative speech by Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK's former representative to the EU, on Brexit:

 

[Casey Pelous]

Sir Ivan's speech is well worth the read, if only for such wonderful turns of phrase as his characterization of the "WTO+" fantasy promoted by some Brexiteers as "produced by people who at the point they said this stuff, would not have known a 'trade Treaty' if they had found one in their soup."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

In which a bloke from Barnsley gets reet vexed* and slays some unicorns (as one does):

Good thread on Brexit


ETA *if it's not obvious, reet vexed is Yorkshire dialect (at least in some parts of Yorkshire) for "very angry"). And Barnsley is in Yorkshire, which is where most of my family is from.

 

[Chin Rey]

Excellent and informative speech by Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK's former representative to the EU, on Brexit:

Off topic but there is one quote from that speak I have to steal borrow:
"I don’t know what tablets these people are taking, but I must confess I wish I were on them."

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

And again Boris Johnson let's go no effort wasted to show the world just how dumb he really is:

 

[Porsupah Ree]

I'm liking the comments, too. Almost worthy of Mastodon. ^_^

(BTW, is there a way of disabling emoji? I keep wishing I could just post a bunny smiley without it being mangled - with SLU, it was possible to disable that conversion, but I'm not sure how here)

If we were to relocate the capital, where might be some good candidates? I'd suggest the transportation infrastructure ought to already exist, and the ability to withstand the likely expansion. Or somewhere nobody cares about, like Norfolk or East Anglia. *ducks*

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

How about becoming the 51st state of America, and just moving all to Washington D.C., so that finally Boris Johnson can serve under Trump as foreign secretary?

 

[Kara Spengler]

Somewhat off-topic but I just rewatched 'breakfast on pluto' (set during the Troubles). How can anyone over there want that time to happen again?

 

[Ashiri]

I'm liking the comments, too.

But some of the comments indicate some people live in a very different reality.

 

[Govi]

And again Boris Johnson let's go no effort wasted to show the world just how dumb he really is:

Is that his entry essay for Upper Class Twit of the Year?

.​

 

[Chin Rey]

And again Boris Johnson let's go no effort wasted to show the world just how dumb he really is

To be fair, he is actually right in one way: nobody likes the backstop solution. But neither he nor anybody else have managed to come up with an alternative to it. Except for a hard border between Eire and Northern Ireland of course but that's not going to happen.

 

[Kara Spengler]

And again Boris Johnson let's go no effort wasted to show the world just how dumb he really is:

Yeah Boris, just drop this silly article 50 nonsense while there is still time, ok?

 

[Porsupah Ree]

Bloomberg - Second Brexit Referendum Gaining Traction as Way to End Gridlock

In the corridors of the U.K. Parliament, an idea that four months ago seemed laughable is now being seriously discussed. Is another referendum a way out of the Brexit deadlock? Speaking privately, some ministers raise it unprompted. At a press conference on Tuesday, leaders of the smaller opposition parties urged the government to consider it as a contingency worth preparing for.

Most significantly, Prime Minister Theresa May has floated it as a possible outcome. She still says she opposes the idea and that it would reduce trust in the political process -- but it’s still a shift for her to even mention it.

If May really is beginning to see the validity of a new referendum, even if only as a (or, really, the) way out of this trap, possibly we'll make it through yet.

 

[detrius]

Well, if they hold another referendum, I hope they include "pie" as an option.



Could've avoided the whole mess if they'd done that in the first place.