Brexit, for once some facts.

[oldgroaner]

It would be good to know the answer, wouldn't it?

Tom Watson demands answers about alleged Russian Brexit plot
Labour’s deputy leader asks if National Crime Agency is investigating whether referendum was ‘stolen’

Carole Cadwalladr

Mon 27 Aug 2018 18.05 BST Last modified on Mon 27 Aug 2018 18.36 BST

Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour party, has called on the government to confirm if the National Crime Agency is looking into whether there was Russian interference in the EU referendum.

Watson suggested the vote may have been “stolen” and said that if the NCA was not investigating then a full public inquiry with powers similar to those of the US special counsel Robert Mueller must be held. Mueller is investigating Russian interference into the 2016 US presidential election.

It is the first time that a member of Labour’s frontbench has called into question the legality of the referendum and has been seen by backbench MPs as a significant intervention.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/27/tom-watson-demands-answers-about-alleged-russian-brexit-plot

What's in a name?
"National Crime Agency"???

Sounds like something the lord Vetinari (The Patrician in Pratchett's Discworld) set up.

In his own words.
"If we have to have Crime, it had better be organised and Taxable"
So far we haven't got it Taxable.

 

[oldgroaner]

Self appointed policeman rather than empire, operating to some sort of partial consensus on what is right and wrong and using the international court,

Very imperfect, as witness only enforcing UN resolutions against those they don't like and not their allies like Israel, so much like all police forces.
.

Sounds familiar to me....

 

[oldgroaner]

Today's Fake news from the Express
"
REVEALED: The EU’s secret no-deal Brexit plan - and it BLOWS APART Brussels' BLUSTER
DETAILS of the European Union’s secret no-deal Brexit plans have been revealed and despite claims from Brussels they are reportedly “very similar” to the preparations made by the UK.

Well, I have read the EU's preparations, and they are far more focussed and detailed than the Junk issued by our lot so far.
The fact that the word "reportedly" appears above means that this was written wthout actually reading them!

 

[Woosh]

Well, I have read the EU's preparations, and they are far more focussed and detailed than the Junk issued by our lot so far.

that's not difficult to understand. Our side is still fighting on why we should leave, theirs has only one purpose: they want the bar bill settled and in return, give us 2 years to do a deal (or cancel brexit).

 

[oyster]

Yet more to use the brexit bonus on funding:

Theresa May to pledge Africa investment boost after Brexit

Theresa May is to announce plans to boost Britain's investment in Africa after Brexit, during her first trip to the continent as prime minister.

At a speech later, Mrs May will say she is "unashamed" about ensuring Britain also benefits from its aid spending.

And speaking on her way to Cape Town, she played down warnings from the chancellor about the economic damage a no-deal Brexit could cause.

She will also visit Nigeria and Kenya during the three-day trade mission.

The trip - which will see Mrs May meet the presidents of all three countries - aims to deepen economic and trade ties with growing African economies ahead of Britain leaving the EU in 2019.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45325701

What are we going to do? Pay them to buy our goods? That is a really fantastic model...

 

[oldgroaner]

Yet more to use the brexit bonus on funding:

Theresa May to pledge Africa investment boost after Brexit

Theresa May is to announce plans to boost Britain's investment in Africa after Brexit, during her first trip to the continent as prime minister.

At a speech later, Mrs May will say she is "unashamed" about ensuring Britain also benefits from its aid spending.

And speaking on her way to Cape Town, she played down warnings from the chancellor about the economic damage a no-deal Brexit could cause.

She will also visit Nigeria and Kenya during the three-day trade mission.

The trip - which will see Mrs May meet the presidents of all three countries - aims to deepen economic and trade ties with growing African economies ahead of Britain leaving the EU in 2019.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45325701

What are we going to do? Pay them to buy our goods? That is a really fantastic model...

We will sell them arms as usual and destabilise the area.
Nice little earner for more arms sales
Simples

 

[Woosh]

What are we going to do? Pay them to buy our goods?

what goods? we only have loans and insurance for sale.
Oh I forgot, we also have laser guided bombs and small jets.

 

[oyster]

what goods? we only have loans and insurance for sale.
Oh I forgot, we also have laser guided bombs and small jets.

Artisanal cheeses, seafood caught of Wales and (currently) sent to Europe, medical leeches, and far too many pro-brexit mob. Perhaps the Congo would like some of them?

 

[flecc]

Theresa May is to announce plans to boost Britain's investment in Africa after Brexit, during her first trip to the continent as prime minister.

Years too late to get anything worthwhile, China has Africa well wrapped up and their investment there has been on a scale we couldn't dream of.

The Africans aren't daft, they'll stick to the rich guy rather than the woman begging.
.

 

[flecc]

far too many pro-brexit mob. Perhaps the Congo would like some of them?

No. They have physical pygmies, not mental ones.
.

 

[oyster]

Brexiteers have lost sight of the greatest free trade prize of all

Rafael Behr
The mantra of ‘WTO rules’ is a euphemism for failure to understand the true value of EU membership

I recently found myself browsing one such volume, Britannia Unchained, co-authored by five Conservative MPs in 2012 who immodestly described themselves as “rising stars” on the sleeve. One, Dominic Raab, has risen to be secretary of state for Brexit, which is reason enough to revisit his back catalogue.

The premise of Britannia Unchained is that Britain, made torpid by a coddling state, faces decline unless it exchanges timorous risk-aversion for a spirit of buccaneering enterprise. This was not a new theme for Conservatism in 2012, but it has become a kind of mantra in the context of Brexit. Buccaneers, apparently, can’t sail while still anchored to Brussels. Freedom means nothing if it isn’t the freedom to sign trade deals, and EU membership (specifically, adherence to the common external tariff as part of a customs union) therefore amounts to intolerable bondage.

You might imagine that this view was anticipated by Raab and friends four years before the referendum. But no. Nowhere, not once, do the authors so much as hint that EU membership is a problem or that ending it forms part of the solution. There is stuff about venture capital, maths training and welfare reform. On the cruelty of a customs union – not a word.

(Above is selectively quoted from whole article)

 

[oldtom]

Lest anyone still be unaware of the unusual situation whereby some of the richest people in the land have been pretending to be just like your neighbours or the guys down the pub, preaching the merits of divorce from the EU as if we all share similar interests, think again!

The mega rich certainly have an interest but it is distinctly different from those of the man in the street; it is about money - no surprise there - but it isn't about hard-earned money put into First Direct or Nationwide savings accounts to accumulate some modest growth. Oh no, it's about multiple millions, even billions of pounds in some cases, deliberately removed from the UK exchequer's clutches and secreted away in tax havens overseas.

Jon Snow has researched the matter and this is what he has to say:



The EU is strengthening its position on tax havens and the JRMs, Farages and their ilk really don't like the idea that they may have to pay tax on their clandestine fortunes due to EU policy.

That is what 'Brexit' has always been about for them.

Tom

 

[oldtom]

Here are two infographics which illustrate beautifully the difference between utter hypocrisy and straightforward political honesty:

1)


2)


Tom

 

[oldgroaner]

Here are two infographics which illustrate beautifully the difference between utter hypocrisy and straightforward political honesty:

1)
View attachment 26524

2)
View attachment 26525

Tom

Nice one Dennis!

 

[oldtom]

Theresa May is to announce plans to boost Britain's investment in Africa after Brexit, during her first trip to the continent as prime minister.

This drivel is just so predictable....and embarrassing!

I'm sure May's political advisers and researchers are getting their inspiration from old scripts of 'Yes Prime Minister'. The African politicians are simply being polite by receiving her at all but they won't believe a word she says in those speeches from the heart of her bottom!

Talking trade and seeking favour among countries we raped for two centuries really is scraping the bottom of the barrel but in global terms, she is at her own level amid third-world politicians. Pathetic!

Tom

 

[flecc]

Theresa May is to announce plans to boost Britain's investment in Africa after Brexit, during her first trip to the continent as prime minister.

She's now announced the investment will be £4 billions, claiming she aims the UK be the G7's largest investor in Africa.

Of course the 7 is smallest G group, no mention of the G10, G12, G15, G20 or G24.

To put our £4 billions into perspective, the latest investment in Africa announcement by G20 member China is for £60 billions. Chinese companies alone have already invested £14 billions there.

Sort of puts us in our place.
.

 

[Woosh]

To put our £4 billions into perspective, the latest investment in Africa announcement by G20 member China is for £60 billions. Chinese companies alone have already invested £14 billions there.

I agree. We come from well behind, if I were in her place, there is no harm in trying though and that will shut the mouths of the ERG a little while.
At the next brexit cabinet meeting, she will be able to tell Fox and Raab that the going is much tougher than they think and competing with China in Africa, even in SA where we have had much history, is a lost battle a long time ago.

 

[oyster]

Celtic rainforest in Wales to be restored with help from EU
Almost £9m to be spent to protect wet and temperate forests from invasive species

A project to restore an endangered section of the British countryside – the Celtic rainforest in rural Wales – has been launched with funding from the Welsh government and the EU.

Almost £9m is to be spent trying to protect and improve the wet and temperate forests typically dominated by sessile oak, downy birch, ash and hazel, in an area criss-crossed by tumbling streams and waterfalls.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/28/celtic-rainforest-wales-restore-eu

 

[oyster]

As if his incessant, incontinent tweeting were not sufficient to bias the other way...

Donald Trump: Google’s news service is rigged against me
US president claims ‘Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good’

 

[oyster]

that will shut the mouths of the ERG a little while.

Needs more than that to shut them up.