European General Politics #1

[BBsq69]

Tonight there are 4 politicians on "This Week" a largely informal political program discussing the issues of the week, mainly what has happened in parliament.

When asked whether 2019 would be even worse than 2018, the Tory politician, who had said this was the worst political crisis since 1912-14 when the Tories were planning a coup only stopped by a certain international conflict, agreed with the Labour politicain, albeit on the right of the party, the SNP and the Liberal politicians that it would. They also thought that we may be in exactly the same position in 12 months time after we are forced largely through our own incompetence and disconnect with reality to extend Article 50. The EU are already sick of us.

Today the Tory Party revealed our immigration plans which was to make it difficult for anybody earning  less than £30K to stay in the country for any length time. Now a large percentage of the NHS staff are immigrants - nurses start on £23K and junior doctors on £27K - and the health service is already massively over stretched as I found out with a 6 hour hospital yesterday to one of the finest hospitals in the country, so more chaos affecting people's lives and deaths.

The Brexiteers are now apparently complaining that hundreds of thousands of the millions of Brits abroad could be sent home by EU countries. Well that's what NO DEAL means or didn't they realise that?!

[BBsq69]

I don't want to DRONE on and on about Gatwick airport.

[nagachilli2]

It's crazy, and we are becoming the laughing stock of Europe BB...I don't want to talk politics, because I'm not political, in as far as I don't really understand it...but this situation, 2 years down the line, is much more than just an embarrassment!! It's a joke!!. Just talking about locally, Sunderland voted to come out. Many did so because  they thought that it would never happen, but they voted to come out anyway...?? 
There was too much emphasis on immigration, IMO...

However, I honestly don't think the government gave any indication as to what might or might not happen if we pulled out. Jeez, they still don't know...I do..we'll be up shit creek without a paddle!

I worked in the NHS for 40 years, as you know...£30K is a good wage, and many highly trained and invaluable staff earn a lot less than that, many being foreign...
So, it's ok to lose them, even though the NHS is stretched to breaking point, yet it's disgusting for all the Brits abroad living in France, Spain or wherever to have to come home...

You couldn't write the script...

[BBsq69]

9 minutes ago, nagachilli2 said:

Just talking about locally, Sunderland voted to come out. Many did so because  they thought that it would never happen, but they voted to come out anyway...?? 

I remember when the result came through from Sunderland thinking 2 things.

1. Oh!

2. Sunderland has relatively little immigration but they've just seen all the programmes from Boston (Lincs), as well as the press and Channel 5, and decided taht's what the whole country will be like unless they stop it now. In South Wales where there were virtually no EU migrants there were people demanding "their country back" when really the main thing that had changed was the coal mines had closed.

It is utter chaos in parliament.

300 want a soft Brexit (or no Brexit or at least a referendum)

219 want May's deal because there is **** all else

120 want No Deal (or the closest they can get) because they don't want the EU winning

Up until now May has been trying to appease the 120 but those 120 think that anything that isn't 100% of what they want is a betrayal. There is 0 room for compromise therefore the EU will never compromise with them. May was an idiot to chose Davies as Brexit secretary, knowing full well he thought he could beat Barnier - a man representing 400 million and 27 countries who had already agreed a position - and Johnson as Foreign Secretary. If Labour had voted for the Chequers deal or this one then I think most of the country would be thanking them. Instead we are still being held hostage by 120 mainly hard right wingers who are mere 200 votes short of anything they want to put forward.

It is super crazy. 

[BBsq69]

I guess people regard the UK parliament as beyond hope.

Pointless Vote of Confidence tomorrow.

The next day, will the Tories and Labour talk? May says yes but what she has said so far has not carried much weight.

Logically we have: 

Parliament says we can't have NO DEAL

Europe says this is the ONLY DEAL - if we had wanted another one we should have thought about that 2 years ago.

So we must have A DEAL which apparently isn't the ONLY DEAL and it's XMAS FUCKING EVE and the children are going to go without presents.

[Thestarider]

[Carmedo]

On 9/25/2018 at 5:48 AM, BBsq69 said:

No idea how videos work but this could be the greatest video ever made, at least I and my friends think so tonight:

Brexit Titanic

Thanks for this great video, it totally made my day lol  Although I'm not quite sure if ''Titanic'' would be a suitable metaphor for Brexit because we are all in the same boat. A possible recession in the UK economy could drag us all into a big economic crisis. If people get into a panic and try to jump out of this boat we can face a giant and dangerous European economy in the future. Since the young British citizens started to move their investments and buy real estate in Germany, German real estate market became more reliable for foreign investors and is still growing everyday. It's a good example for the upcoming risks.

[BBsq69]

On 1/25/2019 at 6:26 AM, Thestarider said:

The majority of people are on welfare are in work.

This nonsense of a statement made in 1984 not 1931 - he was born in 1931 - and wasn't even his. He copied it and to the best of my knowledge the leader of the Southern Baptists is not a fucking economist. 

[BBsq69]

Back to Europe and the UK's impending departure.

The first clue we had on the referendum day was the vote in Sunderland. It was shocking because this was not a place with any kind of an immigrant population certainly compared with Boston, Lincs. However since the media including the BBC were continually going to Boston, Lincs which had had the greatest (in percentage terms) influx of Poles, they were probably thinking "If we don't stop this now, it will be us next". It has been economically proven that there is a net benefit from immigration - in fact a substantial benefit - which more than offsets any extra spending needed for education and health. For the EU migrants the positive effect is even more pronounced. However immigration does change the feel of a place especially in a smallish town like Boston, Lincs so the feelings of people there are to some extent understandable.
But the fears of people outside immigration hotspots are flames which were fanned out of all control by the right wing popular press. It doesn't take much intelligence to see where the Daily Mail and the Daily Express are coming from. After all the former paper supported Adof Hitler in the 1930s and they haven't shifted too far from the right since then even though just recently they decided May had a tad more sense then Rees-Mogg and his band of aristocrats who see leaving the EU as a chance for them to avoid all regulation allowing them to gamble without punishment.
So sadly Sunderland and the towns of England, although not the big cities with the exception of Birmingham with its large number of Muslims (yes I can't work that out, but maybe UKIP convinced them that Iraq and Syria were in the EU and have the incriminating leaflet). Now the one thing people know about Sunderland apart from its proud history of shipbuilding - I won't mention the football, naga - is that it is the home to Nissan in the UK. Nissan said, based on assurances from the British government, that it would expand. With just 8 weeks before Brexit it seems they have decided that in the current climate that is not a good idea. So people of Sunderland - not the sensible ones who voted Remain - do you still think it's a good idea? 

[BBsq69]

On 2/1/2019 at 4:46 PM, Carmedo said:

Thanks for this great video, it totally made my day lol  Although I'm not quite sure if ''Titanic'' would be a suitable metaphor for Brexit because we are all in the same boat. A possible recession in the UK economy could drag us all into a big economic crisis. If people get into a panic and try to jump out of this boat we can face a giant and dangerous European economy in the future. Since the young British citizens started to move their investments to Germany (a safe heaven just as this article explains) German real estate market became more reliable for foreign investors and is still growing everyday. It's a good example for the upcoming risks.

People are making use of the citizenship of other countries particularly those who can claim to be Irish - my ancestors are all back 4 generations so sadly too distant - and even the son of one Holocaust victim who reclaimed his German heritage and many others are looking to do the same.
The EU will be hit by Brexit although obviously not as hard as the UK but it is not in the interests of Germany to let the UK leave easily. For Germany there is a philosophical element to this that the UK population just doesn't get. Germany sees the EU as a symbol of a peaceful Europe and is terrified of Europe breaking apart again. They cannot allow a successful UK to undermine that by having a stress free withdrawal and why would they. When the UK negotiates with the EU it is 1 nation with 65 million negotiating with 26 countries and 450 million. That's like the US negotiating with Spain with a bit more weight behind it. Of course it will be in favour of the EU whereas we still have people in the UK who believe Europe should give in to their demands because they are the best.
Stupid arrogant Cameron never expected to lose the referendum. For that he should be eternally condemned. 

[Foamy T. Squirrel]

There are no recent posts on this thread. I don't believe it's because there is no United Europe -- there isn't. Napoleon, the Kaiser, and Hitler tried, and it only led to a bad scenario. My ancestry in the New World goes back to the 1620's. So I'm a bit behind. Help me out here, because when I think of Europe, I see what my grandfather saw.

Speak up! Share your views! The European nations are still fucking important to the world! Western Civilization is not dead!

I'd rather see multiple shining cities on the hills throughout Europe than what grandpa Squirrel experienced.

 

[BBsq69]

On 2/28/2019 at 5:04 AM, Foamy T. Squirrel said:

There are no recent posts on this thread. I don't believe it's because there is no United Europe -- there isn't. Napoleon, the Kaiser, and Hitler tried, and it only led to a bad scenario. My ancestry in the New World goes back to the 1620's. So I'm a bit behind. Help me out here, because when I think of Europe, I see what my grandfather saw.

Speak up! Share your views! The European nations are still fucking important to the world! Western Civilization is not dead!

I'd rather see multiple shining cities on the hills throughout Europe than what grandpa Squirrel experienced.

 

Currently Europe has its head in its hands at Westminster. There is trouble between France and Italy but it's having difficulty rising above the chaos of the UK.
My grandfather was shot on the Somme, and his twin brother was killed. It was a stupid posturing war caused by the collapse of the Ottoman and then the Austro-Hungarian empires and envy of empires usually often among the same family.