SO WE’RE IN SAFE HANDS THEN?
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Im astounded at the lack of surprise I’m feeling.
Is a light border one where the Customs Officials give you a friendly wave from the window as you thunder through with a lorry load of wine and fags.
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Incompetence is what we have come to expect from this lot, particularly over this matter. But I see Philip has been forced into a U-turn and the Tories have been fined for fiddling. So, incompetence, it seems, is a watchword more than an isolated incident.
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Of course, Davis is also exactly the kind of twit who will tell us that Scotland cannot possibly become independent because we can’t tell him what a second-class stamp will cost in two years’ time. I am no longer surprised by any new horror that the malodorous and mendacious May regime comes up with, but the depth of their arrogance, ignorance and incompetence still has power to shock.
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He is certainly arrogant. Did you see how he dealt with Joanna Cherry? Mind, he’d need to be a considerable amount brighter to get the better of her.
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“Light touch” border for the “Paddies” Trump enhanced Berlin Wall for the “Jocks” with trained haggis sniffing dogs, minefields, barbed wire entrenchments manned with machine guns and artillery. Piranha filled moats, watchtowers with heavy machine guns, psycho border guards in pearl drop Raybans toting all sorts of “Cream a Jock” killing kit, loudspeakers blasting out Vera Lynn singing “We’ll meet again…”, and Trident pointing threateningly at the blue wood daubed Caledonian abos
What’s not to like?
EDITOR: Err…the Jocks have the Tridents and the EU’s got their backs!
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I think Theresa May is mad enough to make all of your nightmares come true. Lets just hope they are as incompetent at geography as they are at everything else. I expect a contract to re-build Hadrians Wall to go down badly in central Newcastle.
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No problem. We just ask Newcastle which side of the new border they wish to be.
Simplissimo Maximo.
John.
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LOL.
Isn’t it hilarious? I’m trying to think of an excuse they could use for threatening to treat Scotland and Ireland so differently. Nope, can’t think of one.
Last referendum the EU was on their side. Frankly, apart from Trump and Netanyahu, now no one is.
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LOL, Yeah. I’m thinking Newcastle might decide that Edinburgh was closer than London.
I love it when you lot speak foreign!!!
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A border in Ireland doesn’t border England. It’s as simple as that.
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I guess.
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Erratum: Apologies for my KNUNT MAN type error. Should read “woad”.
PS Won’t the “Taffies” feel left out and scorned?
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What do we want? A border.
When do we want it? Now.
That sort of thing, only in Welsh?
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David Davis is an imbecile. He proved it yesterday and he’s not alone in this Westminster government from Theresa Mayhem to Liam “crazy like a” Fox, David “ever so umble” Mundell, Phil “cunning” Hammond and Bumbling Boris etcetera etcetera. We need out of this “Carry on Brexiting” union now.
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Hi James.
Couldn’t agree more.
They are, the whole bunch, incompetent beyond belief.
And from what we hear they are at each other throats.
LOL. Who’s getting the Barbara Windsor role. Oh, sorry, I mean DAME Barbara!
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On the EHIC card he said, “Probably, I’ve not looked at that one yet”. The real answer is “Definitely, because EHIC is governed by agreements ruled out by the UK Government as politically unacceptable”. EHIC requires either EEA membership or something comparable to the EU-Switzerland Joint Committee. All of these options have been emphatically ruled out multiple times. The UK’s current course guarantees the loss of the EHIC card even if the “no deal” situation is avoided.
EHIC is governed by a number of EU Regulations, decided by the European Parliament. Switzerland participates by adopting the Regulations with oversight from the EU-Switzerland Joint Committee. UK participation is dependent on the UK also adopting the rulings of the European Parliament regarding EHIC. David Davis should know all of this by now – this has been his full-time job for almost 9 months and he has an entire Whitehall department at his disposal – but he doesn’t. His answer should have been definitive and immediate because Benn’s question was actually particularly simple. Davis clearly hasn’t acquired even a basic grasp of the way that the EU functions.
This is serious stuff: On what day will EHIC membership end? How will pre-Brexit EHIC disputes be resolved post-Brexit? How will medical treatment that spans the date of EU departure be managed? What plans exist to insure Britons travelling to EU countries and who will pay for that? What steps will the UK Government take to inform UK nationals that their EHIC card in their wallet is no longer valid? What is the UK Government’s policy on NHS A&E treatment for EEA nationals post-Brexit? This is the kind of technical detail that will be the focus of the A50 talks. Davis still thinks there is time for trade negotiations. What a mess.
Sorry for ranting but this makes me properly furious!
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No no no. Never apologise for ranting here. It’s what Munguin is all about. Especially when it is such an intelligent rant.
I saw bits of Davis yesterday and read Ian Dunt’s Twitter as he recounted the proceedings.
I’ve never seen a cabinet secretary so out of his depth.
He also looked tired, confused and frazzled… and no wonder, given that he couldn’t actually answer most of the questions that were put to him. I mean, what on earth was wrong with the guy? Heavy night?
If you, who work in an entirely different field, know these answers, why does someone who, as you say, has been in the top job for 9 months, with a battery of civil servants at his disposal know so very little?
How will he, going into negotiations in a couple of weeks, cope with the EU negotiators, who will outclass him on everything? I mean, can you see M Verhofstadt taking off his glasses, rubbing his eyes, losing his temper and saying… ‘Really I don’t know’?
Nor me.
Matters regarding EHIC may not be of huge importance to cabinet secretaries. After all, travelling abroad, they can stay at embassies and the government (ie UK taxpayers) will pay for any medical fees should they be taken ill and require treatment. It’s a different story for me if I happen to be in Budapest or Dublin or Paris. It’s a very different story for a friend of mine who has a villa in Spain, in which she spends about 4 months of the year, and it’s an even more different story for you, living in Switzerland. In short, it matters to us…and not much to them. There is also the matter of the EU people who are living and working/studying here. At what point, despite paying tax and NI here, will they be refused health care for them or their kids? And how will we charge them? Have they worked that out?
They are the scariest, most incompetent government I can remember, at a time when we need good, intelligent government.
A Brexit team of May, Johnson, Davis and Fox have to sort out this massive problem of decoupling London from the EU, setting up new trade deals, establishing oversight of all the things that were previously overseen by Brussels, dealing with Scotland, the whole Ireland thing with all its complexities, the City of London, and the car manufacturers… not to mention the mess that they have got Gibraltar into.
May, Johnson, Davis and Fox. Jeeeeeeez. If they were left in charge of the teas at the Conservative’s Spring Fayre, I’d worry they’d get it wrong.
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Having watched Davis being questioned by both Cherry and Benn, my opinion is that the reason he doesn’t know his brief is because the whole exercise of the U.K leaving the E.U is a sham, a P.R stunt so that they can walk away from the twenty seven and say we tried our best, but they wouldn’t give us the deal we wanted, whatever that may have been.
As we are all aware, the whole purpose of the E.U Referendum was the tories brilliant idea to spike the guns of U.K.I.P, and to that extent, it worked. Despite getting the result they didn’t want, they now have to follow through with this insane policy, not for the benefit, in fact exactly the opposite, of the people they are supposed to care about, but to insure their continued dominance of Westminster for many years to come. Well, just look at Her Majesties Loyal opposition.
I know we are now around 50% support for independence in the polls, but why we are not further ahead baffles me?
The sheer incompetence of this Westminster Government is on view for all to see. May, Hammond, Davis, Fox, and Johnson. I don’t believe they have one functioning brain cell between them. And they are the supposed best of the bunch.
And it’s not just their inability to make sense. It’s their downright cruelty to the most vulnerable people in our society. This week it’s the turn of recently bereaved parents and English pensioners. but who will it be in the future? That’s what really makes me angry, and why I will do as much campaigning as possible for both the council elections, and the forthcoming Scottish Independence Referendum, so that my great-grandchildren can grow up in an independent Scotland.
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I think it’s still about keeping UKIP down.
They were terrified, and rightly so. Like elsewhere in Europe and the USA, the fascist parties are making enough of a difference to be noticed.
When things are hard blame the foreigners, the gays, the Jews, the Muslims, the disabled…
Of course in most of Europe, the system of voting brings in coalitions anyway, but in the UK it might have been enough to topple a tiny Tory majority into a tiny Labour majority. And of course there was always that fringe of loonies at the right of the Tory party who would be in UKIP if they were certain that it wouldn’t mean a loss of seat,salary and troughing.
So they had to deal with it, for once and for all. Cameron knew he would win. He always won stuff. Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon, safe Tory seat (thanks to Buckingham Palace), leadership, general Election, Voting referendum, Scottish referendum. People like him can’t lose.
When Nicola said, ‘David, you could lose’, he said ‘Nonsense’.
I seriously think that people really don’t have an idea what life will be like after brexit.
Over the years the papers have taught us that health and safety, regulations, human rights are all BAD because they come from Europe.
OK, bring on the day when they have deregulated. When employment is as horrifying as unemployment now is.. When you’ll be told , get up that dangerous ladder or you’re sacked.
Oh yes, bring that on. Then we’ll see what life in the British Empire that will last a thousand years will be like.
England has become a really grim place for the people at the bottom; Scotland a little less so becasue of things that our government has done to mitigate some of the horrors from Westminster, but i bet, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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Yup, the EHIC card is but one detail among thousands. Complete incompetence. Now they have Scotland to deal with, too. I think they really thought that the First Minister was bluffing about having another referendum. Oh dear – technically inept and politically inept. They’re lucky that the main opposition is led by Corbyn.
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It’s the only thing that have going for them that the Labour party is as much use as an underwater hair dryer, and that the opposition is really the SNP/Plaid with too few seats to make any dent in their fragile majority (which looks like it’s going to be even more fragile pretty soon).
It really will serve them right if they lose a seat or two to Ukip.
I read today that they will have to sort out a deal with Spain over Gibraltar, or Spain will veto whatever final agreement they make. It may or may not be true, but it is a delicious irony, given that they used Spain and their certain veto over Scottish membership of the EU against us, and now that Spain appears to have made it clear that it will have no issues with Scotland, they not so happy with the Brits !
Lovely.
Add Ireland, Phil and Mme Mou at war, black holes in the finances, then there’s and the three brexiterers … who have difficulty distinguishing their arses and their armpits.
No wonder Mrs May looks like she hasn’t slept in a month.
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I believe that qualified majority voting is the default unless commercial or national security is at stake. If only Davis et al had sought out alliances with Spain and Ireland on the issues that concern them instead of creating a climate of animosity and giving them every opportunity to argue that the situation is so grave that the power of veto should be invoked. The worst outcome for the UK Government is this ends up in veto rather than QMV because it means the UK needs 100% agreement of the EU27. That only weakens the UK’s position and forces them into a deal they know will be attractive to the whole EU. Idiots. Right now, no deal seems ever more likely.
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OK. Thanks. I thought that changes this important were down to 100% agreement anyway.
But certainly, Ireland could argue that it will make a massive difference to their markets if there is a hard border with trucks piled up along the roads. Maybe to a lesser extent Gibraltar.
The trouble is that this has been left in the hands of people like Davis and Johnson. Davis comes over as having little or no understanding and Boris, of course, is treating the whole thing like some great empire thing. Damned foreigners should be made to see the British way of doing things.
I know that people will compromise when push comes to shove, but it still doesn’t look pretty.
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Many years ago I came to the startling realisation that Tories went to private schools not because they were full of smarts, but to take off the rough edges and teach them to waffle for considerable amounts of time.
Understandably, the listener eventually loses the will to live.
And THAT explains the farce of Davis at committee, except now they are under a spotlight so bright I’ve heard you can see it from the International Space Station…
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The thing is that Davis is the exception. He went to a grammar school. And to be fair he actually had a job outside politics, for a long time too.
So he really has none of the usual excuses for being a dead loss at the job.
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LOLZ Maybe just rubbing shoulders with deadbeats reduces the competence? Or maybe, he is embarrassed to be doing a job with no input from his team?
Endless reasons/excuses. I have, as you can tell, nae sympathy! 😀
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Aye, nor me. He’s not up to the job, albeit that it is a massive job with no prep done beforehand.
He should go, although to be fair i can’t think of anyone who could do this.
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It wasn’t so much a U-turn from Spreadsheet Phil…more a pivot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_table
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I thought a pirouette…
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Unlike the last indy referendum,Westminster is not going into the next one with the image of a “safe pair of hands” which without doubt influenced many No voters last time.
They are the ones now being perceived as being unhinged,reckless,incompetent swivel eyed Morris dancers (apologies to Morris dancers).
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LOL yes. No one in their right minds could accuse May of being a safe pair of hands.
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May is rattled and desperate. The timing of her big announcement thrown into chaos by Sturgeons Bute House announcement… and she took a battering at PMQs yesterday. Today, we get the “not now” announcement…
“She’s prepared to allow Scotland to hold the referendum –that’s implicit by the focus on timing – but be seen to block it until it finally takes place.”
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/03/16/may-just-handed-nicola-sturgeon-the-greatest-gift
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Excellent article. May is such a hapless politician with no real sense of direction.
Thatcher would have never made the mistakes she has made on the whole Brexit thing.
Bossy may win in cabinet with a pile of useless incompetent ministers wanting knighthoods and eventual seats in the lords, but it doesn’t win in negotiations with humans.
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Oh Tris… Thatcher made exactly the same mistakes. She thinks she is armour proofed. Her London based sycophants feed the ego. The banner waving barbarians don’t amount to much…
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Ha ha… before my time Conan, so I bow to your knowledge, but I got the impression that Thatcher had a plan, a mission…and a measure of political savvy (although clearly too she bullied and stood all over people who got in her way). Of course she also had some of people who were more than grateful to be promoted to jobs instead of being handed over to the police by the security people. Wink Wink!
It seems to me that May has no plan, no imagine of how things will be, and she has absolutely no savvy at all.
I never thought someone could make Cameron look half way competent, but she somehow does.
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Thatcher had a plan – a mission – alright. Her acolytes are running amok upon *there is no such thing as society* as we speak.
That bitch doesn’t knit socks in Hell. She has Satan by the throat jagging him in the arse.
Or Trump, as he is known in this incarnation.
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LOL. It’s that hair, isn’t it?
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She was a piece of work all right although the prominent members of her cabinets while still being bastards didn’t seem quite as cretinous as their modern equivalents. That could of course be an illusion because it was easier to hide back then.
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I think that’s probably what is is.
But while her people probably weren’t up to much, they weren’t the complete jokes that Davis, Johnson, Fox, Leadsome, Fluffy and Brokenshire are.
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Roaming charges?
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We’ll need to get used to paying them, and again, for the Irish, that will be a significant cost.
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