Still, it’s not all bad. In a few weeks’ time Mrs May has promised to lay out what her government (and Arlene’s) is expecting/demanding/begging for… whatever, from the EU. Then, that done, she should probably put in her Article 50 letter, and that will give us 18 months to sort it all out.
What’s that you say?
Oh dear!
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
That is a great collection of Brexit conundrums. It will be interesting to see how the UK attempts to implement its commitment to “full regulatory alignment” in relation to the NI border. It looks as though Davis wants the EU to refer to last summer’s embarrassing position paper on post-Brexit customs arrangements. That isn’t going to work – it has been rejected by everyone with prejudice. Barnier has already hinted that it will involve effective CU and SM membership. Is this where we’re going to end up? In permanent “transition”? Could be.
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But aren’t you excited to know that Mrs May will, sometime in the relatively near future, lay out the Brits’ position on Brexit?
They seem to have a secret mechanism for having a hard border with no hard border all down to electronic wizardry.
So, I was thinking… you’re a computer type blokey, and you understand all that sort of thing… don’t you?
So maybe you could explain to us Luddites how that’s gonna work, either on the island of Ireland, or in the south of Spain.
I was wondering if Mr Davis maybe needs the services of this sort of thing:
https://www.hearingdirect.com/Cleaning-and-Hygiene/earpal-ear-wax-remover.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA8P_TBRA9EiwAJrpHM_4gPR_AwZM-Y965Zetj7tsH-wiMg4HdsgXv16atdKWWE-8UlMwOKRoCIEEQAvD_BwE
I wonder if Mrs May and Ms Foster will be doing a bit of falling out…
Permanent transition sounds like the very worst of all possibly worlds.
Yeah, on reflection, you’re right. It probably will be that.
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More of a brick wall, as in the Wings cartoon?
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Tris, this looks like the Channel Tunnel in just over a year’s time.
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LOL Andi…. 🙂
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I am obviously thrilled at the prospect about hearing of May’s plans. I’m just not all that certain they will amount to much. We just keep hearing about “frictionless as possible” and “the benefits of the SM and the CU” but nothing that can be turned into detailed policy.
I am computery person but I must admit that I have no knowledge of computers whatsoever. More of a theoretical understanding than a practical one. I should apply for a job at DeXEU.
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There’s a good tweet and set of answers from Kate Hoey and Ian Paisley Junior.
They seem so dim, I suspect that they should apply for a job at DeXEU.
Kate HoeyVerified account
@KateHoeyMP
Kate Hoey Retweeted Ian Paisley MP
Agree 100 per CENT. This ‘threatening’ language of the EU just makes the 17 million of us even more pleased that we voted to Leave this CLUB
Ian Paisley MP
Verified account
@ianpaisleymp
Well then Mr Barnier go right ahead and start building YOUR hard border. Or else negotiate a sensible free trade deal with the UK. The choice is now yours https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/961929258972123137 …
12:27 PM – 9 Feb 2018
They seem to have no understanding of what it is all about. I can’t imagine either will bother to read the explanations about why the EU is obliged to take the stance they take. Don’t you love all the Trumpian CAPS. SAD!!!!
Ok. I understand. So there’s no point in asking you to pop round and fix Munguin’s tablet then? Jeeez…
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In my experience, those who have that kind of unstable, on-again-off-again, maybe sometimes never and occasionally no speakin´ sort of relationship with reality receive quite serious comeuppances when reality gets fed up with them, and turns round and bites them on the bum…
Downright delusional, the DUPpy duffers, but then I suppose if you believe that the world was created in 4004 BC at four o´clock on an October afternoon, there´s no way you can be considered at all well grounded.
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Well, that’s true, I guess, Ed. But I thought it was September.
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Why is Kate Hoey in the Labour Party? Her natural allies seem to be UKIP and DUP. The same could be said for Frank Field. I can’t think of any Labour policy for the last 25 years that they could have rallied around, yet there they are, relatively safe seats for years to come.
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I don’t have an answer to that. Did they always hold these ideas? If so they would have been better to join the Tories. But maybe they grew into them.
There are many others.
Of course, they may be very good constituency MPs.
But, in any case, what does the Labour Party stand for now? Anyone really know?
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Frank Field has been consistently against Labour policy for as long as I can remember. He fell out with Blair, he fell out with Corbyn, he gave Thatcher secret advice about standing aside for John Major. He sets himself up as the intellectual wing of Labour but really he is just someone who should have joined the Conservatives. I don’t get it.
Kate Hoey supports handgun ownership, fox hunting, is chair of the Countryside Alliance and describes herself as a libertarian. She was also describesd as “the least gay-friendly of all Labour MPs” by Stonewall. She ticked the wrong box at careers guidance.
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Yes, she certainly did. LOL what a roaster!
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No, definitely 23 October 4004 BC, but as that was 23 October in the proleptic Julian calendar, it would doubtless be some other date in 4004 BC, such as 23 September, because Archbishop Ussher, who was the go-to guy for this particular piece of nonsense, also said it was close to the autumnal equinox when Adam was created.
Archbishop Ussher of Armagh was also Primate of All Ireland, which I find intriguing because I didn´t think people knew that human beings were primates before Darwin came along and told all our uncles were monkeys, which is just plain wrong because they were apes, and also because it seems so strange to me that the fragrant Arlene and her merry band of Orange marchers would ever take a Catholic archbishop´s word for anything.
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Very good, Ed.
Now you’ve explained it all to me, I shall never be in doubt again…!
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According to the EBC broadcast on R4 we are to get spoken about over the next 3 weeks by various ministers of the currrent government, but not actually in power, from various places on the planet.
So no hurry then, parliament is in recess, can’t be interfering with the holidays.
So Boris when is the young lady SPY, you know the lady teaching english language that you dropped right in it, is actually being released back to her family.
Shambles, great script for a Carry On film. But then that’s just a film not real life.
Thinking Maybots troop are all lying lying low until we all forget what is happening.
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Dave, there just has to be a “Carry On Brexit” film.
I was wondering if Boris was going to trip out to South Africa and ask if he can get Hopkins back… not, you understand, that I have the least interest in her return. The longer they keep her, and the deeper the oubliette, the better, I say.
But yes, the media seems to have forgotten about the lady in Iran. So Boris probably has too.
In the meantime, lord help them, he’s on the case of the Rohingya people of Myanmar. As if they didn’t have enough to contend with.
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We should draft a nice imperial zakaz in Russian, and a lettre de cachet to back it up, demanding that the oubliette for La Hopkins be very, very deep, her term of imprisonment very, very long, and the quality of the sound insulation excellent.
No writing materials may be provided, and ¨We Are The World¨ should be played through securely armoured loudspeakers within said oubliette at high volume on a continuous loop, with occasional intermissions for the sound of gunboats blowing racist, extreme right-wing female journalists (so called) out of the water.
The signatures of Mr. Munguin and Edward ¨l´Etat, c´est moi¨ Freeman must surely persuade President Zuma, or Deputy President Ramaphosa, or whoever´s in charge down there right now, to accede to our wishes, and I expect we could get a good half of the population to back us up by adding their names, if we asked them nicely enough and felt we needed to. We Scots are very generous when the cause is good!
Failing that, we could always plead with Boris Johnson to go to South Africa in person to demand Hopkins´ release. That should see her sentence doubled at least.
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I don’t know why people are going on about Katie Hopkins and Ketamine. Ketamine is used for chronic pain and Hopkins is a chronic pain.
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LOL.
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I think the Johnson option is the better one.
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David Cameron as Lance Percival, Farage as Sid James, that Henry Bolton fella as Bernard Bresslaw, Leadsom as Babs Windsor.
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LOL LOL I’m defo a bit worried about the Babs Windsor woman. I mean we don’t want her bra flying off, do we?
We need a matron though!
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That is from Carry on Camping, probably the most mean-spirited of all the Carry On films. At the end of the film, the Carry On team attack some hippies in the next field just because they were having fun. Why would anyone do that?
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Ah, who knows the deep philosophical meanings of the Carry On writers’ plots.
They should have done a Carry On Aristotle!
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Looks like a case for Baroness Mone of Mayfair Bingo.
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Perfect for the part, I’d say!
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Stress buster:
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I have to laugh at the way the support system labels things in politics. I mean ‘Dream Team’ come on, it just has to be tongue in cheek even though it’s delivered with a poker face.
Not in Your Worst Nightmare Team or Send in the Clowns or Arsehole-Team (A-Team for short) would be more descriptively accurate.
Consider for a minute that they are serious though and it gives, if more were needed, further insight into how out of touch with reality and their own perceived abilities this lot are.
We need our politicians to be more than self interested PR operators, living for the next soundbite, who can out backstab their opposition. Where are the people with vision and ability?
Delusions of adequacy just ain’t cutting it I’m afraid, we’re running out of time.
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Utter Nightmare (screaming in horror) Team.
We’ve as good as run out of time and no one seems to have a clue what they want, or how on earth to get it.
I don’t know what it is that makes them think that it will all work out in the end. It won’t.
It’s not the empire. London can’t order Australia and New Zealand or India or Canada to trade on favourable terms with them.
Britain will be desperate for a deal, and deals are business. USA, China, Japan, India… all of them will demand a good deal for themselves. And where are our trade negotiators? We don’t have any. Is Liam going to manage it on his own? They do know, don’t they, that trade negotiation is a job for the very most highly trained lawyers specialising in international contracts?
And you have idiots like Mogg and Redwood living in the 19th-century belief that Great Britain can just send a gunboat to jolly these Johnnie Foreigners along.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Have been watching on me telly the so called
Brexit experts ???? you know Rees Moggy
who proudly can u imagine took a petition
from the Daily Express to stop foreign aid
to the poorest and most vulnerable on the
planet yet wants to give tax handouts to all
the mega rich.
Bill cash who not long ago was whoring around
Westminster to get votes to repeal the minimum
wage as its was to high( thats what he means by
less regulation)
Bernard Jenkin arch hater of everything eu
Daniel Hannan the bug eyed free market extremist
who the other day said in mad tones how all the
warnings of voting for brexit didn’t happen yet
no one pointed out to him since the vote
and the crash of the pound uk ltd is 25% poorer .
If this rabble of ultra extremists have become main
stream we are all in deep shite…
Ill say this if at the end of Brexit that lot come out
on top them
MY VOW IS on my Children and grand children’s
life’s
TO take down my beloved Union Flag
roll it up place it in my bottom draw
FOREVER..
And fly the saltire join the yes brigade
but (never ever the snp )and walk away
from the Union and never ever look back
ever.
Now I know as a vile untrustworthy
yoon my word may not be taken as
honest and true.
But I do mean every word and I hope
those vile lot are booted out but I have
my doubts that is what is going to be
the outcome.
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Wow… I’m kinda knocked out by that!
First of all, Niko, congratulations on you change of heart. I know that it isn’t easy to give up on something you have believed in but that has let you down. I’m trying hard to think about how hard it would be for me if it were the other way round.
I always hoped that one day you would do it, but…well, I’m just glad you did. As for being a vile untrustworthy yoon, well, I hope we never treated you like that. I’ve always thought we had more in common with each other than we had in opposition to each other.
The folk you mention there are a set of right wing nut jobs. They have no grasp on the reality of the UK’s situation.
They seem to live in a word where the British Empire still rules and what Britain says goes. That disappeared a long long time ago… but I’m sure Rees Mogg’s nanny told him all about it.
The reality is really frightening. It would be frightening if he had a competent government leading us forward, grasping realities and dealing with them.
Instead we have a weak and wobbly prime minister, scared stiff of her own cabinet, who 18 months after the referendum still hasn’t a clue what to do, and now nearly a year after triggering Article 50 is still fighting with her cabinet and some religious maniac from Northern Ireland about how to go forward.
In all this Scotland’s, Wales’s, Gibraltar’s, and indeed London’s wishes have not been taken into consideration. The idiotic prime minister bleats on about the will of the British people, and despite promising that Scotland Wales and Gibraltar would be consulted, she completely ignores all of them. Maybe she doesn’t see us as British people. Good. I don’t want to be.
Where were the first ministers of our countries when decisions were being made? Arlene was on the phone to her in Brussels telling her what SHE wanted. Did Carwyn, Nicola, Fabian or Sadiq get a chance to put their (our) point of view?
If we had been independent this would not have happened. We voted to stay.
But there was a lesson there. Whatever Scotland voted as part of the UK doesn’t matter. We get what someone else voted for.
As I say, welcome to YES. There may be a home for you with Labour for Yes. I don’t know if they are still in existence, but I met with some of them during the campaign and they were good guys who wanted proper Scottish Labour. Not that Kenneth Williams lookalike.
Just one last thought Niko… I hope Spook reads this. He’d be proud.
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Johnny Lately
@LatelyJohnny
Following Following @trispw
Scotland and Norway
Two nations of 5m people, sharing the same oil & gas fields
One is independent with a GDP per capita of US$70,812 and a wealth fund of US$1 trillion
The other chooses the “economic benefits” of the UK & has a GDP per capita of US$28,900 and no wealth fund
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They’re already on top, they’re already running the show.
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About fucking time.
🙂
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Welcome to the broad tent of Independence for Scotland.
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🙂
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Welcome aboard Nikko, that can’t have been easy. I personally feel that SNP are best vehicle to achieve indy but suspect they’ll become irrelevant after….anyhoo, bring yer mates over too and we can build a great wee country
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Hear hear.
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Bloody hell Niko … I think you need to go have a lie down in the Darkened Room.
One thing that has been a certainty over the years for anyone coming on here has been the “banter” between you “defending” the Union and all of us fighting for our independence. For the most part it has been light hearted and, at least for me, enjoyable.
It is never an easy thing for anyone to stand up and admit that they have changed their heart felt views especially on something as strong as Scottish independence/staying in the union.
I acknowledge that this was never going to be an easy decision for you and I send you my heart felt condolences for the loss of something that you have held onto so dearly for so long. At the same time though I offer you my hand in heartfelt welcoming to the large family of independence supporters.
As for being a member of any particular party I would not worry too much about that. The large YES family is full of people who are members of political parties and members of none. Just like those who are still die in the blue unionists you do not need to be a member of any particular party to help fight for our independence.
Should you feel the desire to join a political party then you have the SNP, obviously, although I know you say you’d never join them but you also have the Scottish greens. You can then also consider joining groups like Labour for YES, Tories for YES and I believe there may even be a Lib Dem s for YES although I can not confirm that.
Please let me be one of, I think will be many, people who have had good banter with you in the past over independence welcome you with open arms to the family of YES to independence for Scotland.
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Welcome! I am sure you will be happier, Niko.
Wherever you find your political home now, please – this is a personal request – keep challenging what you thought you knew. After all, your Unionism was fed and nurtured by the propaganda you got from the Unionist meeja, which is basically all of the UK media machine. They lied to you. Keep on going with that idea – that´s where all the anti-SNP stuff comes from too, so – is your loathing really justified?
I am toasting you with a nice strong cup of tea and some toast and marmalade. That vile untrustworthy regime at Westminster disgusts me too. Scunners me. Gies me the dry boke, even.
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I endorse everyone else who have also welcomed you and said it much better that me.
Maybe you can ditch the butchers apron now instead of waiting, after all there is no going back now you have actually crossed the Rubicon.
Welcome to YES .
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Like Terry says, you can see the pattern: the hard right are running the Government now. The frontmen are the ones you named, Niko, but the real power is behind them and threaten a horrible ruthless destructive future ahead. For the sake of everyone in the UK, Scottish Independence is probably one of the few things that could stop them now. I hope you join in now. Thank you!
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Hear hear.
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I don’t know anything about Mundell. I doubt if there’s much to know. But his recent bizarre behavious and statements remind me a bit of Baron Bottle of Cumnock.
Just saying.
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Apparently he trained as a lawyer. He’s a WS!
Hell, it must be be an awful lot easier than I was led to believe.
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It´s childish of me I know, but whenever I hear that someone is a Writer to the Signet, I always wonder what the Signet writes in reply. If I were the Signet, I´d most definitely want to give Mundell an earful, you see, if you can give someone an epistolary earful. Give them an earful epistolarily. Whatever.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Writers_to_Her_Majesty%27s_Signet
Doesn’t really mean much these days. All part of the falderal of top Edinburgh legal society from what I can see.
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