Should the UK remain a member of the EU

[skend04]

Questions are now being raised in Congress about us ripping up the GFA. We are going to be completely fucked if the Tories are allowed to demolish the peace plan after trying to trash the Treaty of Rome too. We're a laughing stock teetering on the edge of becoming a rogue state that will flood crackpot regimes with weapons as that's all we are equipped to trade in.

 

We are Nicolas Cage in Lord of War.

[Anubis]

8 minutes ago, Barry Wom said:

they may do more trade with us than we do with them, but their economy is massive. Probably the biggest economic loser is Ireland and it's quite clear what their position is. The backstop is required to protect the good friday agreement. So I ask again, what exactly can the EU concede that doesn't compromise the good friday agreement? For me there is only 1 thing, a trade deal. the backstop is only existing as we've already agreed to only start negotiating a trade deal once the withdrawal agreement is approved. If we faill to do a trade deal, the back stop kicks in. So the only way to stop the backstop, is to agree a trade deal. We have 8 weeks to do that and all the legislation that is required for us to leave. good luck with that. 

 

I don't think we can negotiate a separate trade deal with Ireland because they are part of the EU so their trade deals are negotiated through the EU, aren't they?

[Boss]

14 minutes ago, Barry Wom said:

they may do more trade with us than we do with them, but their economy is massive. Probably the biggest economic loser is Ireland and it's quite clear what their position is. The backstop is required to protect the good friday agreement. So I ask again, what exactly can the EU concede that doesn't compromise the good friday agreement? For me there is only 1 thing, a trade deal. the backstop is only existing as we've already agreed to only start negotiating a trade deal once the withdrawal agreement is approved. If we faill to do a trade deal, the back stop kicks in. So the only way to stop the backstop, is to agree a trade deal. We have 8 weeks to do that and all the legislation that is required for us to leave. good luck with that. 

The backstop doesn't allow us to conclude trade deals independent of the EU. It needs to be changed so we can do so. If not we'll leave with a no deal.

[Denny Crane]

Just now, skend04 said:

teetering on the edge of becoming a rogue state that will flood crackpot regimes with weapons as that's all we are equipped to trade in.

 

I think we already do well in selling weapons to dubious regimes prior to any Brexit vote. 

[skend04]

3 minutes ago, Denny Crane said:

I think we already do well in selling weapons to dubious regimes prior to any Brexit vote. 

We'll be doubling down on it post Brexit. 

[M_B]

11 minutes ago, Boss said:

The backstop doesn't allow us to conclude trade deals independent of the EU. It needs to be changed so we can do so. If not we'll leave with a no deal.

By conclude I assume you mean implement. We can agree trade deals with whoever we like during the transition period but they don't come into force until it ends.

 

As far as I know we aren't trying to renegotiate this point.

 

Were we to leave without a deal on the 29th then we currently have no trade deals agreed at all with anyone.

[Boss]

6 minutes ago, M_B said:

By conclude I assume you mean implement. We can agree trade deals with whoever we like during the transition period but they don't come into force until it ends.

 

As far as I know we aren't trying to renegotiate this point.

 

Were we to leave without a deal on the 29th then we currently have no trade deals agreed at all with anyone.

We can't if Northern Ireland are in the Customs Union.

[Barrington Womble]

12 minutes ago, Boss said:

The backstop doesn't allow us to conclude trade deals independent of the EU. It needs to be changed so we can do so. If not we'll leave with a no deal.

Of course it does! Because we're still abiding by EU conditions, because we will still be benefitting from all of the benefits of being in the EU without making financial contribution. This is the governments own argument as to why we won't need the backstop, because it is bad for the EU. 

 

But please go back and read what I said. The only way to avoid the backstop is to have a trade deal with the EU. This is all about the border, with the right deal, there's no need for the border. We currently plan to negotiate this deal in the transition period (along with laying the ground work on other trade deal outside of the EU). If we have a trade deal, we don't need the back stop. The only way to avoid committing to the legal requirement of the backstop  in the withdrawal agreement would be to have a trade deal before the withdrawl agreement is signed. 

 

15 minutes ago, Anubis said:

 

I don't think we can negotiate a separate trade deal with Ireland because they are part of the EU so their trade deals are negotiated through the EU, aren't they?

you're right, we can't. i mean an EU trade deal. Even the nutjob johnson said it himself after voting on tuesday with a smile on his face, he said soemthing like "all we need to ask the EU to do is take out the 150 or so pages which relate to the backstop and replace them with a free trade deal with no quotas, no restrictions and everyone will be happy" . Of course Boris. because they're just going to give us that (well in fact they do if the backstop is invoked!). As someone posted a few posts back the Tory right wing are pushing may to the cake and eat it idea. they know the EU won't cave, they know it takes us a step closer to no deal. 

[M_B]

48 minutes ago, Boss said:

We can't if Northern Ireland are in the Customs Union.

I'm not sure what you mean Boss. Do you mean after the transition\backstop ends?

 

During the transition\backstop we can negotiate with whoever we like, but any trade deal will have to wait till the transition\backstop period ends before it comes into effect legally.

 

I'm not sure what you are referring to.

 

Edit: Ok I see what you mean now. Yes we can implement trade deals during the backstop (which I hadnt realised) but yes you are right - those deals will be hamstrung by NI being in the Customs Union.

[Denny Crane]

59 minutes ago, skend04 said:

We'll be doubling down on it post Brexit. 

 

I think the advocates of No Deal have their eyes set on a bigger prize. The lower tax, lower regulation and lower public spending model. 

[pauliescouse]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/31/theresa-may-will-not-be-flying-to-brussels-in-spitfire-bbc-clarifies

 

 

 

[Stickman]

54 minutes ago, pauliescouse said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/31/theresa-may-will-not-be-flying-to-brussels-in-spitfire-bbc-clarifies

 

 

 

I'd have thought this would have been a more apt way for her to get there

 

 

 

[deiseach]

Brits Fucking Deaf Or Something https://t.co/57CU5VW56b

— WWN (@WhispersNewsLTD) January 31, 2019

[AngryOfTuebrook]

23 hours ago, Boss said:

They do more trade with us than we do with them. 

That's not actually possible, is it?

 

The amount of trade X does with Y = the amount of trade Y does with X.

[Numero Veinticinco]

2 minutes ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

That's not actually possible, is it?

 

The amount of trade X does with Y = the amount of trade Y does with X.

I think he means in terms of sales to. I’ve no idea if it’s true, but I figure he’s saying that we buy more of their shit than we buy of ours.

[deiseach]

2 minutes ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

That's not actually possible, is it?

 

The amount of trade X does with Y = the amount of trade Y does with X.

Well, that's the news from Brexit Britain, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

2 hours ago, Denny Crane said:

 

I think the advocates of No Deal have their eyes set on a bigger prize. The lower tax, lower regulation and lower public spending model. 

This.

 

And they appear to have gulled a depressing number of racist "we survived the Blitz" morons into going along with them.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

 

[magicrat]

3 hours ago, Stickman said:

I'd have thought this would have been a more apt way for her to get there

 

 

 

She should have let Farage fly her over there

[Aventus]

I was fortunate enough to be blessed with a free cope of the wetherspoon news magazine through my letter box today. I've never had one before, so I'm assuming the Notorious T.I.M is making an extra effort in the no deal brexit campaign. 

 

I'm not gonna bother actually reading it, but I've had a flick through and probably half if it is brexit propaganda, along with adverts for his "non EU" beers and food. 

 

I get a niggling feeling that big Tim stands to gain a small fortune if we leave the EU. 

[magicrat]

1 minute ago, Aventus said:

I was fortunate enough to be blessed with a free cope of the wetherspoon news magazine through my letter box today. I've never had one before, so I'm assuming the Notorious T.I.M is making an extra effort in the no deal brexit campaign. 

 

I'm not gonna bother actually reading it, but I've had a flick through and probably half if it is brexit propaganda, along with adverts for his "non EU" beers and food. 

 

I get a niggling feeling that big Tim stands to gain a small fortune if we leave the EU. 

Daresay the competition going to find it tough to import continental beers and he thinks we will all have to drink his stale cheap shite. I would rather give up than set foot in one of his pubs. Pays shit wages , treats staff like slaves and puts out UKIP propaganda . Hope he chokes on his own bile. 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2019/01/please-republish-column-tim-martin-you-brexit-loving-pillock

 

Please republish this column, Tim Martin, you Brexit-loving pillock

 

www.newstatesman.com

 

Wetherspoons, as any fool know, is an enormous chain of enormous cut-price pubs. At any of the 900 or so branches of ‘Spoons, you can get a pint and a meal in an often beautiful setting at a surprisingly affordable price. You can even, thanks to its app, get the pub’s hard-pressed staff to bring you said affordable pint and meal, without ever getting off your fat arse, which is ideal for the drinking millennial, if not for the actual staff. We’ve got no problem with Wetherspoons as a pub company: Wetherspoons is, basically, good.

 

Something that is not good, however, is the fact that an affordable pint and meal is not the only thing on offer in the average Wetherspoons pub. Lying about the place, between an entirely extraneous layer of crumbs and a pool of spilt beer, you will find copies of Wetherspoons News, the chain’s in-house-magazine-cum-hard-Brexit-propaganda-sheet. It’s always been a deeply weird publication, occupying a strange hinterland between the Ukip manifesto and the Camra guide to Berkshire and Surrey.

 

But now it turns out it’s gone a step beyond weird and into the realms of completely fucking doolally. Let’s, at this juncture, turn to Buzzfeed’s Mark Di Stefano, who I am particularly keen to credit because the New Statesman, unlike certain other publications I’m about to name, prides itself on not simply ripping off other journalists’ work:

 

“If you open up Wetherspoon News, you’ll quickly find that along with news about the pub chain, there are columns about Brexit lifted entirely from some of the nation’s most well-known newspapers and magazines.

 

“In Wetherspoon News’ winter edition, for example, the magazine used columns from the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, and the Financial Times, with accompanying pro-Brexit commentary from the tycoon himself.

 

(...)

 

“A Wetherspoons spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News the magazine did not get permission from the publications or enter into a commercial agreement to reprint the columns.”

 

Let’s say that again. Tim Martin – ale aficionado, pub entrepreneur, enthusiast for the hardest of hard Brexits – owns a magazine which is simply lifting other publications work, and republishing it.

 

One of the pieces that Wetherspoons News has “borrowed”, as it turns out, was written for the very website you are reading right now, by our much missed former colleague Amelia Tait. And so, in the name of harmony and friendship, we at the New Statesman would like to make Tim Martin an offer:

 

Republish this column. Republish this, Tim Martin, and then provide a comment – you weird, creepy looking, self-important, Peter Stringfellow-a-like, Hard Brexit Twat. Yes, this is one is free. The rest you will have to pay for.

 

 

[Rico1304]

13 minutes ago, Nelly-Torres said:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2019/01/please-republish-column-tim-martin-you-brexit-loving-pillock

 

Please republish this column, Tim Martin, you Brexit-loving pillock

 

www.newstatesman.com

 

Wetherspoons, as any fool know, is an enormous chain of enormous cut-price pubs. At any of the 900 or so branches of ‘Spoons, you can get a pint and a meal in an often beautiful setting at a surprisingly affordable price. You can even, thanks to its app, get the pub’s hard-pressed staff to bring you said affordable pint and meal, without ever getting off your fat arse, which is ideal for the drinking millennial, if not for the actual staff. We’ve got no problem with Wetherspoons as a pub company: Wetherspoons is, basically, good.

 

Something that is not good, however, is the fact that an affordable pint and meal is not the only thing on offer in the average Wetherspoons pub. Lying about the place, between an entirely extraneous layer of crumbs and a pool of spilt beer, you will find copies of Wetherspoons News, the chain’s in-house-magazine-cum-hard-Brexit-propaganda-sheet. It’s always been a deeply weird publication, occupying a strange hinterland between the Ukip manifesto and the Camra guide to Berkshire and Surrey.

 

But now it turns out it’s gone a step beyond weird and into the realms of completely fucking doolally. Let’s, at this juncture, turn to Buzzfeed’s Mark Di Stefano, who I am particularly keen to credit because the New Statesman, unlike certain other publications I’m about to name, prides itself on not simply ripping off other journalists’ work:

 

“If you open up Wetherspoon News, you’ll quickly find that along with news about the pub chain, there are columns about Brexit lifted entirely from some of the nation’s most well-known newspapers and magazines.

 

“In Wetherspoon News’ winter edition, for example, the magazine used columns from the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, and the Financial Times, with accompanying pro-Brexit commentary from the tycoon himself.

 

(...)

 

“A Wetherspoons spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News the magazine did not get permission from the publications or enter into a commercial agreement to reprint the columns.”

 

Let’s say that again. Tim Martin – ale aficionado, pub entrepreneur, enthusiast for the hardest of hard Brexits – owns a magazine which is simply lifting other publications work, and republishing it.

 

One of the pieces that Wetherspoons News has “borrowed”, as it turns out, was written for the very website you are reading right now, by our much missed former colleague Amelia Tait. And so, in the name of harmony and friendship, we at the New Statesman would like to make Tim Martin an offer:

 

Republish this column. Republish this, Tim Martin, and then provide a comment – you weird, creepy looking, self-important, Peter Stringfellow-a-like, Hard Brexit Twat. Yes, this is one is free. The rest you will have to pay for.

 

 

New Statesman?  I thought that they were...never mind. 

[Chairman Meow]

On 1/31/2019 at 8:14 AM, Section_31 said:

This has all been framed so the EU can be blamed. UK will make do and mend, keep calm and carry on, Johnny foreigner will be vanquished by the three functioning vessels of her majesty's Royal Navy.

I've said this all along. Everything bad that happens for the next 10 years or so will be blamed on having been in the EU and then the EU not negotiating with us properly.

 

It's odd, we spend the best part of 500 years trying to make as much of the world British citizens whether they wanted to be or not and now people can't fucking cope with the fact they might live near a shop run by a brown person. 

 

Can't wait to see this spirit of the blitz nonsense,they're talking about the weather like it's the end of the world and the country is grinding to a halt. The shit they had on BBC news at dinner time there wasn't even snow on the ground in half the places they showed, then some guy giving it full boot and unable to move his car due to sheer incompetence. All because we have a population who are mostly too dumb to realise that winter tyres exist for a fucking reason.

[Pureblood]

You and your winter tyres.