Brexit, for once some facts.

oyster

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Nov 7, 2017
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From the Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5914ce14-4129-11e9-889c-a7e27b96460c

Would you believe this?
The civil servant in charge of Britain’s no-deal Brexit preparations is retiring fom the civil service two days after he may have to put those plans into effect.
Philip Rycroft is to take early retirement from his job as permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union on March 31. He is 57.
He seems to be much wiser than most people!
It is quite obvious why he has chosen to do this. He wants to go fruit-picking on less than minimum wage. ;)
 

Wicky

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Tories have just about run out of folk to scapegoat - so why not the pensioners for a change! Heck most of em voted Brexit! In one swoop they could stop the bed blocking crisis, cost of bus passses & subsidised TV licences and literally plough any slackers back into the soil.

Eastern European pensioners working in the UK would be on double time...
 
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Danidl

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As I have been suggesting for a while, but obviously there will be no lightbulb moment from the UK side, so M Barnier has done as much as he can. He has lit a torch to illuminate the light switch. Now all the UK side need do is press the button.
The button being to separate mainland UK from NI....
 
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anotherkiwi

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Jan 26, 2015
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Tories have just about run out of folk to scapegoat - so why not the pensioners for a change! Heck most of em voted Brexit! In one swoop they could stop the bed blocking crisis, cost of bus passses & subsidised TV licences and literally plough any slackers back into the soil.

Eastern European pensioners working in the UK would be on double time...
Guys, don't opt for the strawberries, back breaking, trust me! In any case life expectancy is down again in the UK and Wales so you might as well die picking fruit out there in that wholesome English country air. What? 2,000 places in the UK are over the EU air pollution thresholds. OK so pick the fruit but please don't eat any!
 

tommie

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The button being to separate mainland UK from NI....
And fresh in from the land of the fairies we have this recycled horse manure.....

and i thought our foreign scribe was a learn-ed and educated chap......tut tut.

the real solution is to return this republic backwater to it`s original status of a British dependency....problem solved!
 

Danidl

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And fresh in from the land of the fairies we have this recycled horse manure.....

and i thought our foreign scribe was a learn-ed and educated chap......tut tut.

the real solution is to return this republic backwater to it`s original status of a British dependency....problem solved!
Interesting days ahead, and then we will find who indeed is away with the faeries. In a crunch situation, and if the Labour party broke ranks, the price of ERG support, and its greater numbers will trump the DUPs numbers. Then Ms May achieves her meaningful vote.
Now it may make a new GE inevitable, but then how secure will those DUP seats be? . We both know that the NI voter is a canny person, and will be able to see exactly who brought them to the brink. The DUPs stance on this issue is very unpopular,and it has been trading on the greater reluctance by a majority for a United Ireland , that has worked so far,but then again for how long. ? There are other, more moderate voices,who would equally object to the Unified Ireland model.

Just to make it clear, after the delicate negotiations of the last week,which got nowhere, the EU is offering to separate the NI backstop from the UK wide one.
Anyway , we will both be on the same side on Sunday afternoon.
 
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oyster

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T May is 62 - so she'll soon have 3 years time off to write her memoirs before some good ol' Turnip picking as penance...
'fraid not. For TM: "Your State Pension age is 66 years." So another year...

(Can't help also wondering about the bureaucracy required to ensure that pensioners are able to claim exemptions - for example, for illnesses which affect their ability to work in the fields. Maybe diabetes...?)
 
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oldgroaner

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Here we go , according to RTE.

Barnier offers Britain unilateral exit from Customs Union.
He stresse that Britain would still need to honout it's comitment to a border free of controls between the republic and Northern Ireland

Whatever that means!
 
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oldgroaner

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Nov 15, 2015
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And fresh in from the land of the fairies we have this recycled horse manure.....

and i thought our foreign scribe was a learn-ed and educated chap......tut tut.

the real solution is to return this republic backwater to it`s original status of a British dependency....problem solved!
You assume that your arrogance towards the ROI is popular on the mainland.
But why should it be ? We would be much better served if you acted in a decent and less aggresive way, and the DUP is very unpopular as a bunch of nutters over here.
 

Danidl

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Here we go , according to RTE.

Barnier offers Britain unilateral exit from Customs Union.
He stresse that Britain would still need to honout it's comitment to a border free of controls between the republic and Northern Ireland

Whatever that means!
It means exactly what I was suggesting. That the UK can have a temporary" backstop ", but that at the end of that time NI would remain ringfenced into a Customs Union. That situation would continue, until such time as a technological solution for transportation of goods from rest of UK into NI and vice versa was sorted. Now the UK are not required to diverge from a CU ,but if and when they did,then putting up an internal border would be their responsibly .
It is a solution which would find acceptance by the majority in NI ,the overwhelming majority in RoI,, will provide the figleaf that the ERG demand,and would allow a fraction of the labour party who fear a no deal to break ranks.
The only people it will not please are the DUP front bench,who will cry "Lundy" (Tommie can explain). However it may be more popular with their supporters,than they are prepared to accept.
 

tommie

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You assume that your arrogance towards the ROI is popular on the mainland.
But why should it be ? We would be much better served if you acted in a decent and less aggresive way, and the DUP is very unpopular as a bunch of nutters over here.
It`s the DUP way or the Highway....:p.. get used to it...Tic-Toc...Tic-Toc..

DUP: EU proposal 'not sensible or realistic'

The DUP’s Westminster Leader, Nigel Dodds, has savaged the European Union’s latest intervention. It is looking increasingly unlikely that Theresa May will get her unchanged deal through Parliament.

Responding to the EU’s Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier, Dodds said: “Nothing new in what Barnier is offering. This is a retreat back to the proposal of an Northern Ireland only backstop previously rejected by all sides in the House of Commons.”

And in a statement Dodds was even more emphatic, insisting: “This is neither a realistic nor sensible proposal from Michel Barnier. It disrespects the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom. This is an attempt to get ahead of a possible blame game and appear positive when in reality it is going backwards to something rejected a year ago.


“As the Prime Minister has said, ‘no United Kingdom Prime Minister’ could sign up to an arrangement which annexes Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.

“Whilst the European Union has spoken often about their value of the peace process in Northern Ireland, this proposal demonstrates that they have a one-sided approach and a lack of understanding about the divisions in Northern Ireland. Just as nationalists and republicans oppose a new north-south border, unionists oppose any new east-west border which would place a new barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.


“We need to work for a sensible deal which can work for everyone in Northern Ireland. It is possible but there must be less intransigence in Brussels.”

The EU still don’t think the UK will leave with No Deal, meaning they have little incentive to shift. When will the British government reiterate to Brussels that No Deal is still better than a bad deal?

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Kudoscycles

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Apr 15, 2011
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Guys, don't opt for the strawberries, back breaking, trust me! In any case life expectancy is down again in the UK and Wales so you might as well die picking fruit out there in that wholesome English country air. What? 2,000 places in the UK are over the EU air pollution thresholds. OK so pick the fruit but please don't eat any!
I met my wife at strawberry picking.....no waist height fruit down at ground level in those days.
For the first few days everybody pigs out on strawberries,after a week you can’t stand them and no matter how many times you wash your jeans they still smell of strawberries.
Back breaking work but well paid if you worked quick and hard.
KudosDave
 
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Woosh

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“As the Prime Minister has said, ‘no United Kingdom Prime Minister’ could sign up to an arrangement which annexes Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
BJ would.
 

Woosh

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Amber Rudd would take the PM job and keep us in the customs union and stick two fingers up to the ERG.
KudosDave
Amber Rudd would probably keep NI in the Union. I am not sure that an ERG Prime Minister would. They already resent paying to support NI.
 
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Woosh

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Really?? Where did he say that?

Link please..!!
BJ describes the problem of the NI border 'a gnat'.
“We are straining at the gnat of the Irish border problem – in fact we haven’t even tried to chew the gnat – and we are swallowing the camel of EU membership in all but name,” he said.

Google it up if you like.

How important is the NI border to PM Johnson? Is it important enough to keep England in the CU so that the border does not come into it? Of course not, it will be England first as far as Prime Minister Johnson is concerned.
A deal with the EU is less important than a deal with the USA for BJ. While there is no deal with the EU, there will be checks at the NI border.
 

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