Brexit, for once some facts.

[oldgroaner]

Nope we gave up on rivets a long time ago... There is a restaurant moored on the Liffey which was I understand the last riveted boat made in Ireland.. 1953 i believe. Much more RIVIT these days. The kind of advice would be , might it be a good idea to replace the 170 year old cast iron water mains, leaking 20% of the water with new slimline plastic liners, inserted into them. These cast iron pipes having rusted to a scale,but still defining a tube.
Not much votes in it, not much qudos, unglamorous ,but it does need lots of tables and sheets of data showing why it might be more cost effective than building a new system.

I'm very impressed with the organisation of your Government, and I'm completely serious in saying that.

You wouldn't get far tendering such reports to our Government, they don't concern themselves in matters so detailed, though to be fair to them , neither do the privatised industries that run potable water supplies in this country, which is why such a huge volume of water is lost to leaks.

 

[flecc]

BBC:
Police in Paris have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters demonstrating for a second weekend against rising fuel prices.

Maybe life outside the EU isn’t so bad.

But the fuel prices are not the EU's doing. It's the French government unfairly hurting their provincial population who are most affected by the high prices, provoking the protests.

Macron is really falling out of favour now. I liken him to Tony Blair, suddenly popping up with a supposed new way to ensure a better future, but their new ways later exposed as baseless deceit.
.

 

[oldgroaner]

Agreed, but the problem is that it's impossible to stop. If banned it would still continue in private, so it's probably best kept out in the open where we can all witness it going on, able to comment and protest.

Evil lot that we are, we once had a lobbyist for e-biking, Lord Laird in the House of Lords who has internally lobbied government for us and spoken on our behalf. Unfortunately he was later trapped by a newspaper sting into offering to lobby for cash and promptly referred himself to the HoL standards committee who suspended him for four months.

Representing the Ulster Unionist Party, he once had been at 26 the youngest MP at Stormont. He died aged 74 on 10th July 2018.
.

I found that highly entertaining and in many ways a parody of Brexit and the Ulster Unionist Party.
"I attribute my success to Honest Graft" declared a famous Mayor of New York, and promptly absconded with $3,000,000

 

[Danidl]

I'm very impressed with the organisation of your Government, and I'm completely serious in saying that.

You wouldn't get far tendering such reports to our Government, they don't concern themselves in matters so detailed, though to be fair to them , neither do the privatised industries that run potable water supplies in this country, which is why such a huge volume of water is lost to leaks.

Thanks.. I said we would be giving the information to our Government, not that they would act on it!. . In fact the last time that they insigated a water management remedial programme in Dublin, it was on foot of EU instruction that a tranch of structural funding would not be forthcoming unless they did so. I do have respect for the integrity of our civil service.
However water is a very hot political potato here at present,and there will be an attempt to put public ownership of water as a constitutional right .. . Previously water was run by the county council's so was effectively public. There were difficulties with this as there are a lot of local authorities and petty squabbles. . Some years ago an act was passed to transfer this into a national water authority, similar to a National Roads Authority, which is a proven success. However when the Water Authority starting charging for water, and inserting water meters on properties,there was an outcry.
Ultimately water must be paid for someway or another, and if it were constitutional law ,then ,I believe people would not object. Our water infrastructure is in need of massive and then sustained investment. There is exactly the fear that the British model of private monopolies,will result otherwise. We also look to the shambles of UK rail . So I will be voting for that amendment if it comes.

 

[oldgroaner]

This business with Spain making a fuss over Gibraltar is only a harbinger of things to come when we try and negotiate our trading relationship with the EU
We will be in the position they were while waiting for us to finally say what we wanted.
"27 nations may or may not choose to make waves.
Let us hope that they can reach a collective condition quickly.

 

[Woosh]

This business with Spain making a fuss over Gibraltar is only a harbinger of things to come when we try and negotiate our trading relationship with the EU

that's why every time I see a hard brexiter coming to the TV to say we can get a better deal, it makes me want to puke.

 

[oldgroaner]

Flat taxes? The poorest pay 20% of every penny as do the richest.
Voucher-based - so that some companies can sell eduction as a commercial product.
Privately provided health so companies can make a nice profit.
Freedom of trade with the world - but not, of course, with the 27.
Allow house-builders to make a fortune from the banked land. TO pay in dividends (see Persimmon).
Just what would have happened if two of the largest UK banks had been allowed to go bust?

Policy priorities

• Low, simple, flat taxes that encourage investment and innovation, and hence economic growth.
• A voucher-based education system that gives parents and schools complete freedom over how and where children are educated.
• A privately-provided, publicly-funded healthcare system where patient outcomes, not NHS wages, are the focus.
• Freedom of trade with the world, and a liberal immigration system that is designed to work for migrants and natives alike.
• A liberalised planning system that lets many more houses be built, so everyone can afford to own their own home.
• A simple welfare system based around a Negative Income Tax or Basic Income that tops up the wages of the poor and guarantees that work always pays.
• Free market money and an end to bailouts of private banks, in all their forms.
  
  
  
  https://www.adamsmith.org/about-the-asi/

Mission statement : to lie, cheat and disseminate misinformation in the cause of increasing the wealth gap between the rich and the plebs.
Guilty as charged of being right wing and fascist
A danger to the Public and the future of our children too

 

[oldgroaner]

BBC:
Police in Paris have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters demonstrating for a second weekend against rising fuel prices.

Maybe life outside the EU isn’t so bad.

Despite not having the water cannon ?

 

[oyster]

We are in such a strong position.

Brexit: May gives way over Gibraltar after Spain's 'veto' threat
Spanish prime minister had demanded written assurance as price of support for withdrawal agreement

 

[tillson]

We are in such a strong position.

Brexit: May gives way over Gibraltar after Spain's 'veto' threat
Spanish prime minister had demanded written assurance as price of support for withdrawal agreement

Last week the EU said there would be no more tinker or adjustments to the deal. So were they lying? Didn’t take them long to go back on their word. But as you say, if the EU shouted $h!t, May would instantly squat down and squeeze, such is her skill in negotiating.

 

[Woosh]

Last week the EU said there would be no more tinker or adjustments to the deal. So were they lying? Didn’t take them long to go back on their word.

apparently we had already agreed in secret about the future of Gibraltar. The Spanish wanted to start immediately joint sovereignty talk. I don't think they will get very far with it but it goes to show that the FTA won't be easy to negotiate because Spain can veto the FTA. The next PM will have to go back to the drawing board and start again: Norway or no brexit.

 

[oldgroaner]

Last week the EU said there would be no more tinker or adjustments to the deal. So were they lying? Didn’t take them long to go back on their word.

They haven't have they? Spain made a threat to do so and May buckled, so who actually went back on their word?
We did!

 

[oldgroaner]

A letter from
Helen De Cruz
philosopher, associate professor

https://medium.com/@helenldecruz/a-brexit-grief-observed-1b9851bef867

I wonder if any of the 17.5 million leave voters realise how much of a mistake they have made in turning friends into enemies, and blighted the opportunities for the next generation.

And all because of what?
Well no one at all is promising to deliver on the promises of better times and prosperity, so what is left to keep this lost dream on track?

A miserly fear that in sharing with others , they will be losing something themselves
Helen de Cruz describes us exactly
"in your much diminished incarnation as a nineteenth-century nation state in retreat."
That what Brexit has already done before it's even happened.

 

[tillson]

They haven't have they? Spain made a threat to do so and May buckled, so who actually went back on their word?
We did!

Of course, why didn't I see it that way?

 

[Danidl]

Of course, why didn't I see it that way?

Boxes and thinking come to mind!.

 

[flecc]

They haven't have they? Spain made a threat to do so and May buckled, so who actually went back on their word?
We did!

Of course, why didn't I see it that way?

Not so sure about buckled, May probably acted on civil service Foreign Office advice. We're probably going to adopt the old Falklands/Malvinas tactic.

We kept Argentina at arms length on that issue for the whole of the 1960s by negotiating about a handover of the islands, but then walked away from the talks at the start of the 1970s, possibly through suspecting there might be oil there since we'd just discovered North Sea oil.

We'll probably negotiate in a promising way with Spain over the Gibraltar sovereignty issue all the time the trade talks continue, to keep Spain on side. Then dump 'em, just as we did the Argentians, leading to the Falklands war.

It will remain to be seen whether we'd send an expeditionary force to recover Gibraltar after a Spanish military invasion. We might be up against the new European Army acting in the EU's mutual defence!
.

 

[tillson]

Boxes and thinking come to mind!.

I’m afraid that OG’s logic doesn’t fit in the box or the space outside the box. It belongs in another dimension yet to be discovered.

 

[oldgroaner]

Boxes and thinking come to mind!.

Come now, I'm sure it's a case of , as usual ,tillson giving May the benefit of the doubt!

 

[oldgroaner]

I’m afraid that OG’s logic doesn’t fit in the box or the space outside the box. It belongs in another dimension yet to be discovered.

You Flatterer! but I hasten to remind you
There's a law against giving away classified information like that
I was in fact responsible for designing Boxes, Cartons,Pallets and other forms of Packaging as one of my many functions for a ten year period, and you can't design a box from the inside.
It's too dark!
And of course till a sample has been produced it's in another dimension of the imagination, yet to be discovered.
You have me bang to rights....guilty as charged
Can't fool you, can I ?

 

[oldgroaner]

Not so sure about buckled, May probably acted on civil service Foreign Office advice. We're probably going to adopt the old Falklands/Malvinas tactic.

We kept Argentina at arms length on that issue for the whole of the 1960s by negotiating about a handover of the islands, but then walked away from the talks at the start of the 1970s, possibly through suspecting there might be oil there since we'd just discovered North Sea oil.

We'll probably negotiate in a promising way with Spain over the Gibraltar sovereignty issue all the time the trade talks continue, to keep Spain on side. Then dump 'em, just as we did the Argentians, leading to the Falklands war.

It will remain to be seen whether we'd send an expeditionary force to recover Gibraltar after a Spanish military invasion. We might be up against the new European Army acting in the EU's mutual defence!
.

With the Navy ships we have now they'll have time to fortify the place before we get there!