HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, IT MAY BE A VERY BUMPY RIDE

67 thoughts on “HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, IT MAY BE A VERY BUMPY RIDE”

  1. I was only saying this the other day.
    Johnson s only card of any value is an Irish Border Poll.
    Of course he can crash out then start to sell off stuff like the NHS. The people will likely riot though.

    Tick tock….

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  2. Leo Varadkar(Irish PM) spells it out in no uncertain terms. And there is nowhere for the UK – the dead duck led by a PM who will never ever be poor – to go.

    If it were happening in another society it would be sad, as it is happening indirectly to ours it is tragic.

    And the UK has manouvered itself into this self harm.

    Hopefully Scotland can find an escape route. And, at least on that front, things are looking up a little.

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  3. The Tory party, selfish, uncaring, loathsome idiots, led at the time by the coward Cameron, engineered this whole process to head off U.K.IP, safe in the supposed knowledge that, first of all he wouldn’t have to call an E.U Referendum, and if he did, Remain would win.
    Now the E.U have said that there is no point in further discussions, a statement that will be leapt on with glee by the U.K M.S.M, as it’s all the fault of these nasty Europeans.
    Of course it’s going to be “No Deal”, followed by a G.E, Tory majority crushing the Brexit/U.K.IP parties, quickly followed by the almost complete subjugation of Scotland, ruled by the U.K Government in Scotland, administered by their new placemen taking orders from Westminster.
    Maybe I’ve exaggerated what is likely to happen, but make no mistake, if we don’t take the next opportunity to leave this madhouse, we deserve all we get.

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    1. Well, they are all possibilities or probabilities, Alex.

      No Deal look almost certain and clearly the Brits will do what they have been doing for 40 years and blame the EU for intransigence.

      Clearly the building of a massive Brit government HQ in Edinburgh indicates a bigger role for London in our internal affairs. They have said that they will control the use of funds which would have been provided by Brussels and that they will plaster everything that they control with their flags.

      We should remember that the Tories in general were against devolution. Just as the SNP is against the House of Lords.

      Unlike the SNP with the House of Lords, however, the Tories decided to take up any well paying jobs in the Edinburgh parliament.

      Getting rid of, or at least stripping powers from Edinburgh, would suit their purposes. They have already made quite clear what they think of Ruth and her band of hapless 4th raters.

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      1. I think it was ever his intention.

        Wipe out Nigel Farage. Win the election at least in England, and then try to recreate the England of days of yore.

        Good luck with that!

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  4. I’ve been thinking about the various motivators for people in the run up to this crisis and throughout the lies and the manipulation I’m concerned that the Ashcroft poll although encouraging was still on the disappointing side. Why on earth, given the current situation, isn’t support for Indy much higher than it is?

    Regardless of that, we still have a lot of firm no’s here. There’s folk that will never change, don’t care or are just plain feart. The cringe is still strong in Scotland and what I would say about your average English leaver is this. Like us, they’ve been lied to, and manipulated and they’ve been stupid enough to be duped into blaming the wrong crowd for their ills. Just give them one whiff of losing their sovereignty though and that is unacceptable to them, action must surely follow to remedy it. They have the pride, self respect and self belief, I’ll informed as it may be, for good or ill, to follow this through when many in Scotland would rather leave control over their lives with a government they didn’t elect. A foreign power.

    The cringe is still strong in Scotland, let’s hope that in the strife to come we can break its back once and for all without the further indignities of having to wait for its victims to die of old age.

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    1. Lesson for the day: Read stuff over carefully before hitting the post comment button. Oh why can’t wordpress have an edit function, cos once it’s out there, it’s, eh, out there.

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      2. Tris
        I said 3 years ago the Tories wanted a no deal Brexit but needed the EU to look like they are to blame, the papers will Big it up as the EU not being willing to do a deal and then the Tories will call a general election knowing that they only need to win the leave areas to be the largest party. The Liberal Democrat’s would probably do a deal with them in the national interest, I know they have said they wouldn’t but you can’t trust them. The stories of a Labour SNP deal is plausible and looks like the cost is another referendum so Labour are doing the rounds now, the problem is Labour won’t get enough seats because they are useless so I hope the SNP have the ground work done for a snap referendum or we are well and truly screwed.

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        1. They are counting on people not remembering that the UK and the EU did do a deal, Bruce.

          Mrs May signed it.

          I can’t understand why the EU would rip that all up after 2.5 years and start all over again, because the UK chose another prime minister..

          People have other things to be getting on with.

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    2. Cringe is right:

      Kerrie
      @kkstuart
      Replying to
      @tristanpw1
      and
      @NicolaSturgeon
      I don’t look down on my country, I’m a realist who understands that we don’t have the economy that would support independence.
      10:35 AM · Aug 6, 2019·Twitter Web App

      TrisPriceWilliams
      @tristanpw1
      ·
      Replying to
      @kkstuart
      and
      @NicolaSturgeon
      But Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia do? Bugger me, the Scots must be a supremely dim lot if they alone can’t manage, especially in the EU or EEA

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  5. None of Boris Johnson’s spin doctor’s tricks seem to be working.
    Push a simple message few people understand (Abolish The Backstop).
    Denigrate the item in the message (undemocratic, Irish, EU’s).
    Repeat.
    If they think they’re scaring the EU, they’re making the same mistake Labour did when they appointed Murphy as Branch Manager. The EU are laughing, just like Scotland laughed at Murphy.

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  6. The Irish backstop is absolutely essential. Neither Varadkar or anyone else in the EU is going to countenance junking it. I have been saying for – cannae remember since when – that the extremist Brexiteers are hell-bent on trashing the Good Friday Agreement. This is all so very unacceptable on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. If the regime does it anyway through a no-deal crash-out, there will be repercussions – which BoJo appears not to understand. (There’s a lot he doesn’t understand. For example, I hear that he was most put out that the UK will no longer have a seat on the European Council once the UK leaves. Seriously.)

    BoJo describes the backstop as “undemocratic”, which rather begs the question of what he thinks democracy is – something in which he and his Bullingdon Boy pals get their own way all the time, probably, just as the fancy takes them.

    Getting rid of the backstop is, quite literally, intolerable – unless you are unconcerned by the prospect of a social explosion in Northern Ireland, among other things.

    Getting rid of the backstop concerns us Scots too – forgive me if this is all old news to everyone – because we don’t want a hard border between us and the rUK, whether in the form of England or Northern Ireland. If there’s no hard border between the Republic and the North, we can demand the same for independent Scotland. Maybe that’s another reason why BoJo is so intent on getting rid of the backstop.

    Notwithstanding, I recall that polling data a while back showed that independentistas would tolerate a hard border if it were the price of independence – but it never anything but a straw tiger anyway. Unless BoJo goes full-on isolationist and decides to flout international law and precedent, and even good sense.

    We should also recall that Nancy Pelosi has said that there will be no trade deal between the US and the UK unless the backstop remains in place.

    Conclusion: BoJo is setting the UK up for a no-deal, crash-out Brexit in which the Tory regime can do whatever the hell it likes. That’s why I’ve been calling for the independence referendum to be held on 31 October.

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    1. I think no deal has been Boris’s plan all along.

      I agree about the backstop. They don’t seem to realise that to not have it would be to break an international treaty, which states that the island of Ireland must be undivided … people, goods, finance, services…even passports.

      I’m not sure any of them has any kind of understanding of the complexities.

      They are just being very British about it. Stiff upper lip what what. Johnny Foreigner will cave.

      Except, it seems, he won’t

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  7. In the short term,UK policy on just about everything,will revolve around BoJo retaining his premiership at any cost.
    Rational decisions that a PM might take in the best interests of the country,or even the Tory party,will take a back seat in BoJo’s desire to remain as PM.
    A bumpy ride will be an understatenent in these circumstances.

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  8. I’ve not seen this considered anywhere else, imagine if the US congress demands sanctions on the UK because they broke the Good Friday Agreement. It’s a possibility with a Democrat congress who have big representation from the Irish-American community. That on top of Brexit would be even more devastating for this island.

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    2. Is this the trailer for a new Tarzan movie?

      The nervous dug looks like the chimp bathing experience is almost on the verge of too sair. The word to use to get them to be more gentle, as everybody over a certain age knows would be ‘Ungawa’ in Tarzan speak but unfortunately labradors can’t speak Johnny Weissmuller.

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  10. Just been watching the lunch time news with a piece from Gove about the EU having to renegotiate the agreed withdrawal deal.
    This gets to the very heart of the problems with the British state where the “principle” that one administration cannot bind the hands of the next is being used by the Brexiteers.
    This means,for anyone thinking of doing deals with the British state,that anything they may agree today can be overturned tomorrow should the current administration so decide.
    This brings into focus devolution and why it was never worth the paper it was written on.
    Today’s Scotland Act can reverse yesterday’s should the London establishment decide and the fact that legislation passed in Westminster can never guarantee the permanence of our parliament or anything else.
    The only way to avoid this situation,is to separate ourselves from them and make sure that we carry a very big stick in any negotiations with Westminster since that is all they will respect.
    Ireland have found out how much the GFA is worth to the British state and it is only the threat of sanctions from the EU and the USA (congress) that are holding them in check for now.

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    2. Well, I doubt if Gove is correct. A deal signed by the then Prime Minister, on behalf of the queen, may not suit THIS administration, but that doesn’t mean that the EU has an obligation to renegotiate.

      Mrs May got the best deal that was going, mindful of the international treaty: The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

      The EU has already said, over and over that, having wasted 2.5 years on it, that is it. Agreed by the EU; agreed by the British government. Signed. End of story.

      In November there will be a new administration in the EU.

      They may, of course, wish to change what went before, but I can’t see it.

      There is only so much time these busy people can waste on a set of jumped up self important idiots who think that Victoria is still Empress of India.

      I think reality is about to hit the fiction that the Brits have built up around themselves.

      It occurs to me, though, that if we leave without a deal, then an automatic border will exist between Ireland and the UK.

      I cannot see how that can be avoided if the EU wishes to maintain its standards and not have them adulterated by whatever dross the UK is tempted to accept from wherever, in the desperate attempt to get some sort of trade deal with someone.

      What happens in Ireland then will be anyone’s guess. I’m sure Boris’s father had some words of erm, wisdom, on that subject.

      https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-boris-johnsons-father-slammed-for-insensitive-comments-on-irish-border-37428518.html

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      1. Gawd. Not only insensitive, but phenomenally arrogant and ignorant as well. That bloody English exceptionalism implying to the likes of BoJo and his dad that Britannia can waive the rules any time it pleases.

        Now, what do we call people who regularly flout the rules the rest of us live by in the direction of criminality (and not victimless crime either)? Criminals? Scofflaws? Narcissists? People with antisocial personality disorder(s)? Same sort of thing applies to States and societies. The English polity is sick, and it is led by a sick man in a sick political party.

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    1. Why don’t they get it?

      Mrs May negotiated the leaving arrangements. The cabinet agreed them. The EU, after two years of work trying to coax the Brits to get something agreed, finally signed off on them.

      How the hell is anything the fault of Brussels.

      Very silly attitude. Even if they leave with no deal, they are going to have to negotiate some sort of trade deal over the next 5 years with people they have just unnecessarily insulted.

      You’d have thought that at least Gove who has 9 years’ experience, might have worked that out.

      Still, this is all for the benefit of the Daily Express/Mail/Telegraph and Sun readers.

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      1. True. It’s part of the narrative to deflect blame onto those awful Johnny Foreigners. If Gove actually believes that, then all that cocaine must have really fried his thinking part… which is not beyond the bounds of possibility.

        It’s an example of scapegoating, sometimes call BSE disease – i.e., Blame Someone Else disease. The Tories are at a level below that, though: they’re going to crash us out of the EU with no deal, metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot, and they’re already saying “Now look what you made me do!”

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        1. I’m sure they will swear that it was Michel Barnier holding the gun.

          They don;t seem to get the idea that the deal was already signed. If May couldn’t then persuade her party (and their nut job mate in the DUP) to vote for it in parliament, tough.

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    2. Tony McK ||⭐|| liked

      ruth wishart
      @ruth_wishart
      ·
      Spare us the crocodile tears
      @michaelgove
      – you well know the EU can’t tear up a 27 country agreement to pander to a bunch of wreckers who decided of their own accord to commit commercial suicide.

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  12. I’ve just been listening to gove’s’ get your excuses in early’ ebc falsehood, they won’t negotiate with us.
    Then an interview from brexiteers from Nottingham.
    They realise that food might be a problem to source but they are WELL OFF and will be able to buy even if the price rises.
    This is the mentality of englanders, they don’t seem to think about those who don’t have the money to buy at present levels. What happens if the prices really go up, as they will, if THEY don’t have the money to buy. They said they would get by on being vegan with the produce from their garden, hope it’s a big garden and they know how to store. Last part was ‘We’ll just buy frozen and tinned as a last resort’.
    This is mental, we allow these people to vote.
    Time we went on our own way and become a normal country.
    First job is to rebuild Hadrian’s Wall.

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    1. No matter how well off you are, unless you are Lizzy Windsor or one of her brood, or an earl or duke or MP, it won’t matter how much money you have… unless you can afford to fly to Paris or Reykjavik and eat.

      It there’s no food, there’s no food.

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      1. Here’s a scenario for you, Tris. BoJo does the whole no-deal, crash-out thing and the consequences are as bad as we think they may be – and in particular, food shortages. You can see already that the Tories will start quacking on about plucky little England standing all alone against Johnny Foreigner and the Evil European Empire and invoking the spirit of the Blitz, and putting up posters saying Dig for Victory!

        That may play well in some parts of England, but it’s not going to play well at all in Scotland. If we have food shortages here, we may not have food riots but instead have increasingly urgent demands from the public that the Scottish Government Do Something – and that will be to dump the Union and petition for re-entry to the EU, and for emergency relief in the meantime.

        I still think we should call the referendum for 31 October – apart from anything else, our position can then be that we are the successor State to the UK and already a member, mutatis mutandis. Our representation, budgetary contributions and trade quotas would of course be subject to negotiation and recalculation.

        Representation – we should have 13 MEPs, I think, like Denmark and Finland. The rest could be fudged to begin with by making them 8 point something percent to produce a population-based pro rata figure derived from whatever the UK has / had in place. None of this is impossible, given the political will – and the Westminster regime in general and some of its members in particular have offended the Europeans so much already that they’d probably enjoy having an opportunity to metaphorically boot them in the metaphorical nuts.

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        1. I’d buy into that, but we won’t know how bad it will be on 31st October.

          I doubt that there will be real food shortages for a while as I’m sure that a) companies, and b) households who can, will stock up.

          But there is no reason why we cannot let the EU know that that is what we intend to do.

          And if Giant Haystacks says we can’t have a referendum… we have an advisory referendum… and if Tories refuse to participate, well, that’s up to them.

          I’m up for that being torn down…

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          1. Food shortages – I was reading a while back that the comfortable assumption that out there are whole food warehouses out there that can be stocked up to see the country through seven lean years, needs to be revised as a matter of urgency. The reason is that this is the era of just-in-time supply chains, and that applies in the supermarketing business too. Warehouses cost money, so warehousing capacity has been in decline for many years. Stock levels are kept to the bare minimum – because unsold stock is money immobilized, money that could be used to pay CEOs’ salaries (no, that last was not entirely a joke).

            Also, there are loads of products which are perishable and always have been – the avocado I had yesterday with French dressing had come all the way from Tanzania, and very nice it was too, and you don’t need to talk to be about food miles and virtual water because I know. That chain is already “just in time” by its very nature, and will come to a shuddering halt if the ports – land, sea and air – are disrupted.

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            1. Well yes. It was reported a few months ago that there were contingency plans o use the army on the streets if food became short and people started to riot.

              It will be in October/November by the time that happens, so I guess the weather will keep people inside.

              On the other hand… climate change. Who knows, November may provide the summer we’ve been waiting for.

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          1. Well, I’ll refrain from saying what I think of Mr Rowlands, except I agree with the Lib Dem MEP.

            He makes me feel physically sick. But there seems to be a tendency in the hard right, to want to kill people for, well, being foreign.

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  15. Off topic.

    As you may know, I am kind of ‘interested’ in US politics.

    What happened in Dayton and El Paso may well determine whether:

    “As Ronald Reagan emphasized, America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”

    Or not.

    Never has these words sounded so hollow.

    Whilst I have contempt for a lot of senior UK politicians none of them are as overtly racist as Donald J Trump.

    It is utterly sad that people have died, going about their business, because the leader of the free world is unconstrained in the language and the philosophy that he espouses. And stirs up folk who kill on his trigger words.

    The USA is, in many ways, a country of hero’s. It is a great pity that it is led by a complete utter fool.

    Danny, talk me down!

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    1. I won’t talk you down, Douglas.

      It’s not ALL down to Trump, though.

      There has always been a culture of gun ownership in the States. It dates back to the early pioneer days and the need for a militia to protect settlers from the native Americans.

      And of course, the USA is not alone in this militia thing. As I recall every Swiss male between the ages of 16 and 49 must present for military training and keep a weapon in his home, ready to be called to action. (Women serve voluntarily.)

      Of course, Switzerland is a pretty well ordered society! And some places in the USA, are perhaps…not so well disciplined.

      The big problem is the NRA which is immensely powerful and seems to have a shedload of Senators and Congressmen in it’s pocket.

      As it is anyone, it seems, over various ages (depending on State) can buy a gun…

      “Federal law requires someone to be at least 21 to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer, but only 18 in most places to buy a long gun. In some states — mostly rural places with a strong tradition of hunting — you can buy a rifle at the age of 14 or 16.”

      14 with a gun?? Madness.

      I think though, we sometimes forget that some places in the USA, it would probably be pretty foolish to go for a walk in the woods without some sort of weaponry, given the possibility of coming face to face with a bear or something else that wants to eat you!.

      That said, there is no doubt that Trump has stirred up racial hatred since before he was even elected.

      There have been horrible shootings and massive loss of life under all the presidents I can remember.

      It seems, though that Trump gives the impression of promoting hate.

      This is worth a watch>

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      1. Thanks for that. It is ‘interesting’ that lots of Americans are not as insane as their POTUS.

        Sorry for taking this ‘off topic’ but thanks for replying. I was just a (lot) upset about that.

        I didn’t think that mass murders, perpetrated by ‘civilians’ would become a commonplace. More fool me.

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