Brexit, for once some facts.

[flecc]

First step on the road back to the EU (sneaked in quietly)

This was always inevitable if we wished to continue EU trading, a point I was making when I started this thread with the opening post about the Swiss experience.

Where the EU are concerned there are only four options:

1) Completely in as a member.

2) EEC membership with acceptance of all the relevant EU laws including freedom of movement for all EU citizens.

3) Outside EU membership with acceptance of all the relevant laws via a huge number of trade agreements over time, a path we are on now. For example, Switzerland also took this route and ended with 120 trade agreements negotiated over seven years and this also includes freedom of movement for all EU citizens.

4) Completely out.
.

 

[flecc]

Amazing what roubles can buy!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1491725023274573826

Actually announcing it to kid them we are sending enough troops is the only option when our army is now so small there's very few we can send !
.

 

[oyster]

This was always inevitable if we wished to continue EU trading, a point I was making when I started this thread with the opening post about the Swiss experience.

Where the EU are concerned there are only four options:

1) Completely in as a member.

2) EEC membership with acceptance of all the relevant EU laws including freedom of movement for all EU citizens.

3) Outside EU membership with acceptance of all the relevant laws via a huge number of trade agreements over time, a path we are on now. For example, Switzerland also took this route and ended with 120 trade agreements negotiated over seven years and this also includes freedom of movement for all EU citizens.

4) Completely out.
.

The government has just updated a document concerning medicines. Item 10 explicitly says we will have equivalent at least for GMP standards. Which rather implies ongoing equivalence. Which means that if the EU changes the rules, we will, at least eventually, do the same.


Guidance Written Confirmations for export to EEA and Northern Ireland of Active Substances manufactured in Great Britain

Updated 7 February 2022

10. Ongoing requirement for Written Confirmations

The need for Written Confirmations is expected to be an interim position. An application will be made to recognise Great Britain’s GMP standards for the manufacture of Active Substances in Great Britain as equivalent to those in the EU.


Once a country has been accepted as having equivalent GMP standards, they are added to a ‘White List’ and Written Confirmations are then no longer required.

Written Confirmations for export to EEA and Northern Ireland of Active Substances manufactured in Great Britain

www.gov.uk

 

[oyster]

Actually announcing it to kid them we are sending enough troops is the only option when our army is now so small there's very few we can send !
.

Perhaps we should re-introduce National Service?

Send all the new recruits directly to Ukraine and let them get trained by Ukraine or Russia - as circumstances dictate.

When they come back, they'll have added a foreign language as well as learned the meaning of "cold".

 

[oyster]

Durham police help save woman 3,000 miles away in Canada
Suspect arrested 30 minutes after woman in Durham, Ontario, mistakenly contacts English force

I bet they are thanking their lucky stars they didn't get through to the police who operate in Durham Street, London.

The story ends with:

“If we can assist in rescuing a vulnerable victim in immediate danger, regardless of where they live, we will do all we can to help.

“In this case, we’re glad to learn there has been an arrest and, more importantly, the victim is out of danger and receiving the help she needs.”

Do you think the citizens of the metropolis should dial 0191 999 when they want to contact the police? Sounds like better service.

 

[flecc]

Do you think the citizens of the metropolis should dial 0191 999 when they want to contact the police? Sounds like better service.

What makes you think we want a police force?

We used to have one long ago and what a pain it was. Between operating protection rackets, requiring sexual services in lieu of prosecuting, recycling seized illicit drugs and further expanding their earnings through their ever helpful friendships with crooks, they mainly put in a showing by harrassing ordinary law abiding Londoners, including murdering a few of them.

For the most part they went into hiding long ago and we are well rid of them. The great majority of Londoners police themselves extremely well.

Taking a leaf from M & S, we are not just Londoners, we are Greater Londoners.
.

 

[oldgroaner]

I've already said that going into a potential conflict is far from ideal as a time to change PM. But it is massively better than leaving Johnson in the job.

Pack up your roubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile.
Just pucker up and whistle (Whistle)
(Whistling)
What's the use of worrying

More or less the same applied to Cressida Dick.

Timing is always bad for top level changes.

But utterly critical as History proves

 

[oldgroaner]

???
Actually announcing it to kid them we are sending enough troops is the only option when our army is now so small there's very few we can send !
.

In defence of our service people it would probably have been a better idea to pretend we had none there rather give the Russians a tip where the worst equipped enemy are!
Dear Father went to France as a Sergeant Major at the start of WW2 with the BEF
His armament? an empty revolver case he filled with toffees he picked up in France.

 

[Danidl]

In defence of our service people it would probably have been a better idea to pretend we had none there rather give the Russians a tip where the worst equipped enemy are!
Dear Father went to France as a Sergeant Major at the start of WW2 with the BEF
His armament? an empty revolver case he filled with toffees he picked up in France.

Where was his swizzle stick and spoontoon?.

 

[oldgroaner]

Where was his swizzle stick and spoontoon?.

The only time I saw him carrying a stick was when I was in my early teens and he was RQMS of the East Yorks while on various parades.
The spontoon went out of use long before he was born as far as I know

 

[oldgroaner]

This is not the sort of image Labour needs

Pathetic

 

[oyster]

Sunday Express:

BREXIT'S 'BIG' WINS' FOR BRITAIN
EXCLUSIVE
Brexit will transform Britain and deliver such dividends that within a decade nobody will "rant to rejoin the European Union", Jacob Rees Mogg has vowed.
In his first interview since being appointed as the Minister for BO...

 

[oldgroaner]

Latest piece of idiocy

Take a bigger step and get lost!

 

[oyster]

Latest piece of idiocy

Take a bigger stop and get lost!

Such obvious propaganda rather than reality.

 

[flecc]

This is not the sort of image Labour needs

Pathetic

Pathetic indeed, but I suppose to be expected with another Blairite pseudo Tory PM.

One would never see Jeremy Corbyn taking part in such an event, or even allowing it.
.

 

[oyster]

I see the Mail on Sunday proclaims across their front page today:

Charles and Camilla to be crowned side by side

I'm not going to question whether that is really more important and significant than Ukraine, Partygate and other Johnson matters, big wins for brexit, the leadership of the Met, a TV psychic or all the other issues the rest of the papers chose for their front pages.

No, I just have a very simple question. Will they be accompanied by music by Sondheim?

 

[flecc]

I see the Mail on Sunday proclaims across their front page today:

Charles and Camilla to be crowned side by side

Superficially it looks as though there's nothing wrong with that on equality grounds but there are other issues, such as there can only be one person in charge.

Much more sensible would be that the leader, even if there's only one, be called King, regardless of whether male or female. Thus the present monarch would have been crowned King Elizabeth, demonstrating true gender equality.

And in accordance, upon the death of a King with his Queen surviving, that she becomes the King then until her death.

Better still, scrap royalty altogether and have a President who could sack a Prime Minister.
.

 

[oyster]

Better still scrap royalty altogether and have a President who could sack a Prime Minister.

... and would do so.

What have seen is that the system of checks and balances (USA wording, I know) and adherence to conventions has utterly failed because those who can, won't. A variety of reasons, I'm sure. But it ends up in the same place - we do not have a mechanism for removing a PM even if the majority who do not endorse the PM rises still further.

 

[oyster]

Superficially it looks as though there's nothing wrong with that on equality grounds but there are other issues, such as there can only be one person in charge.

Much more sensible would be that the leader, even if there's only one, be called King, regardless of whether male or female. Thus the present monarch would have been crowned King Elizabeth, demonstrating true gender equality.

And in accordance, upon the death of a King with his Queen surviving, that she becomes the King then until her death.

Better still, scrap royalty altogether and have a President who could sack a Prime Minister.
.

I don't give a damn about the ceremony - one then the other, together, never. I just saw opportunity for a jibe at MoS and a mildly humourous remark.

 

[Nev]

No need to fusion energy is just around the corner. Oh wait it's at least 20 years away, weren't they saying that 20 years ago, and 20 years before that?

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

The author in the link below thinks we are at least 30 years from having fusion power available on our grid network. I wonder if some of the huge profits companies like Shell and BP have recently had due to the energy price rises could be diverted into fusion power research and perhaps speed up development and bring down that 30 year time horizon to 20 years or even less.
The power of stars to meet our energy needs? This is something to be excited about | Arthur Turrell | The Guardian