"oh you don't get me I'm the end of the union": lol brexit is how we're all gonna die

wheeeeee

German foreign minister Heiko Maas on prospect of renegotiating Theresa May's #Brexit deal: 'The withdrawal agreement is the best and only solution for an orderly withdrawal.

'Germany and the entire Union are firmly on Ireland's side.'

— Joe Barnes (@Barnes_Joe) January 30, 2019

But cars

It's almost as if the Germans have noticed that rabid nationalism and a ridiculously inflated sense of the UK's standing in the world haven't stopped the average UK citizen from buying almost everything they own from overseas producers.

An Irish friend has just suggested we connect the dots between the Brady amendment passing and the news that cocaine usage in the UK is significantly higher than the rest of Europe...

I posted this a few weeks ago, but it seems a convincing model of the difference between the image of the EU projected inside the UK and what the actual EU has been doing (IE gyac OTM, it is 100% about precedent above the attendant pain and damage).

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2019/01/search-lost-brexit-how-uk-repeatedly-weakened-its-own-negotiating-position

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47041270

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the announcement, "highlights the significant potential for oil and gas which still exists beneath Scotland's waters".

... you said it, mate.

fun fact: it is essential that absolutely none of that oil or gas is extracted, stfu paul wheelhouse

DUP could in theory be ousted by UUP in some seats but in general the seats are super safe union majorities with the exception of Belfast South & North. But while the UUP are a more moderate party, they also oppose the backstop for the same reasons as the DUP.

This is vaguely interesting but probably means little in reality: https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2019/0130/1026375-congressman-brendan-boyle/

A resolution has been introduced in the US Congress opposing the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Irish-American Congressman Brendan Boyle is behind the move.

He said that now was the time for the US Congress to make it clear that it stands in strong opposition to a hard border.

After introducing the resolution in the House of Representatives, Congressman Boyle said: "One of the great foreign policy achievements of the 20th century was the Good Friday Agreement.

"It eliminated the hard border that then existed between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland. Now Brexit threatens this."

perhaps the threat of a future US trade embargo and our supply of chlorinated chicken will help focus ppl.

May was going for the jugular on Corbyn at PMQs there. Novel way to kick off your cross-party talks, that

The photos of her on the front page of the papers are really something.

xps I've been continually surprised by the resilience of the DUP vote up to now through all the previous scandals, so I'm not going to hold my breath, but it might be time I was surprised in the other direction...

Maybe in the longer term, as I suspect the DUP's support is already low among younger voters (under 40, maybe 50?), but a lot of younger voters also seem quite disengaged from politics in general*. I suppose Brexit may be changing that. Then there's the way (what I think is currently most acceptably termed) the "CNR" - "Catholic/Nationalist/Republican" - community is growing faster than the "PUL" - "Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist" - community, so we're moving in that direction anyway, but who knows.

But I think the only DUP voter I know is under 40 and votes the way his hardcore Free Presbyterian parents would want despite being married to a Donegal Catholic and walking the tightrope of what to tell the kids about all that stuff, so things are unpredictable to my English mind and prob best not interrogated by the likes of me tbh.

* I can't find much in the way of voter turnout demographics but I've heard a lot of "they're all a load of terrorists and conmen, on both sides" "ah but the cross-community party Alliance are a shower / are secretly them'uns / the Greens will never get in so what's the point". On that front, there is a tiny micro-point that the GFA and subsequent power-sharing act, much as they were a big step forward and remain the best option we've got and I don't want them trampled by the DUP/Tories, theoretically entrench sectarianism by saying that the 1st Minister must come from the "community designation" with most votes and the Deputy 1st Minister must come from the other lot - but we're a long way from the stage where that is an obstacle...

Sorry to go on about this but it is a semi-mystery/irony to me that I would really like Single Transferable Vote in general elections as I believe it would break down the two-party system and make voting for smaller parties less risky, giving them and their voters a chance to be heard - and yet since STV was introduced in NI Assembly elections the harder parties on each side of the divide have become more and more entrenched...

The problem is that NI was meant to be a perpetual unionist majority, and that’s not how it worked in reality. It’s a big existential threat.

just heard this total nimrod on R4 talking about a magical frictionless "administrative border" controlled by IT systems. Which is apparently one of the proposed tweaks. It didn't stand up to the simplest bit of scrutiny i.e. a system that presumes there will be no illegal trade and need for checkpoints. These people are insane.

How’s it going to stand up to someone flying a drone over it?

May was going for the jugular on Corbyn at PMQs there. Novel way to kick off your cross-party talks, that

I can't emphasise enough how humiliating it would be, and how much ire it would draw from the Conservative Party, for May to be perceived as having gone cap-in-hand to Jeremy Corbyn to bail out her Brexit deal. It's probably the single biggest reason why these talks won't go anywhere (and obviously Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are such famously ameliorative bipartisan types).

guys i accidentally tweaked my backstop last weekend

i wouldn't recommend it

just heard this total nimrod on R4 talking about a magical frictionless "administrative border" controlled by IT systems

look we all know that uk government it systems are famously inexpensive and effective, what could possibly go wrong

how's this for an alternative arrangement, we stay in the fucking EU

has anyone thought of this?

BREXIT MEANS BREXIT iirc

The Will has spoken i am sorry

look we all know that uk government it systems are famously inexpensive and effective, what could possibly go wrong

lol every time read someone boosting 'max fac' or whatever i can practically see the randy glint in their eye - 'technology will fix it - a big it contract called something like max fac - nobody knows what it is, what it does, how big it is, how long it would take to build, how much it would cost or whether it's possible, but we can shake hands on launching it and wave our wangs around'

same kind of thinking that leads to a referendum on 'brexit'

Obligatory drive by bitch about the press & how little pressure the government faces:

As an alternative to asking why the PM keeps wasting time on political stunts, try asking why Britain’s overwhelmingly pro-Conservative newspapers keep humouring or endorsing her, and why that tactic is so obviously working. pic.twitter.com/FigcYwth8E

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) January 30, 2019

didnt brussels respond within 6 minutes?

red tape and inefficiency what what

i presume that they left a note with the third secretary left watching the phones:

off to ferrero rocher event. keep and eye on place. if uk calls, its a 'no'. feed le chat.

tbf brussels have been saying the same thing for a couple of years now, there probably wasn't much need for a complicated chain of command to get their response signed off

max fac me til I fart

go off king

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, is speaking now.

He says the UK will soon leave the EU. This is a bad decision.

He says the withdrawal agreement is the best and only agreement available. The EU has said that repeatedly. He says the votes last night do not change that.

The EU is determined to prevent any return to the “dark times” in Ireland.

The EU has no desire to use the safety net (his term for the backstop). But he says a safety net that can only be used sometimes is not a safety net.

He says the Commons is against many things. It is against a no-deal Brexit, and it is against the backstop. But we don’t know what it is for, he says.

He says he will continue to be in close contact with Theresa May, “for whom I have the greatest respect”.

He will listen to her ideas. But he will also be clear about the EU’s position.

When will the leavers realise brexit is fyre festival. What will be the cheese sandwich of realisation.

— Stevie Parle (@StevieParle) January 29, 2019

feral dogs or gtfo

nigel farage is truly our emily ratajkowski

mjacob rees-mogg

the cheese sandwich of realisation will probably only come on the day when leavers realise they no longer have a) cheese or b) bread

fun thread on prime scottish gammon david coburn acting the twat in the european parliament

David Coburn, eurosceptic MEP and purveyor of proper lunches, shouts 'auf wiedersehen' as German MEP Elmar Brok finishes his intervention in the EU Parliament's #Brexitdebate

— Joe Barnes (@Barnes_Joe) January 30, 2019

I’ve seen several tweets about the May/Corbyn meeting ending in kisses and/orhatesex and like, why do people have to put their ids out there like that?

their ian duncan smiths?

^^^bg's id out there

the id: very much the quiet man of the psyche

genuinely loling at this appalling pun

43: Beach House – “Lemon Glow” – 202 points – 7 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Beach House

a flash in the pan― Stephen Bush, Saturday, November 18, 2006

That S Bush became the ilxor "ilxor", fact fans. Think he's still around as something else now?

no less surprising discovery today than that the only ok-ish uk political commentator is actually also the ilxor formerly known as ilxor

we win

:(

Like actually?

no

pretty sure the ilxor ilxor was american

i think it's unlikely (i'm am still committed to the "mcternan posts here" bit tho)