Also it is worth remembering at this point that the Kingdom of Denmark consists of three nations.
There is the mainland of Denmark itself and the self governing islands of Faroes and Greenland.
Parliament in Tórshavn
When Denmark joined the EU, or EEC Common Market (at the same time as the UK and Ireland) The Faroes decided not to join.
Greenland, with less autonomy in these days than the Faroes, did join. However, as Greenland is geographically a part of North America rather than Europe and seemed to the Greenlanders that they GAVE more than they took, when they achieved Home Rule, they held a referendum and decided to leave the EU.
Parliament in Nuuk
Three very different parts of the same Kingdom, able to have very different relationships with the EU. No one could reasonably argue that Scotland and England were not very different. So why are the wills of the Faroese and Greenlanders more important to Denmark, than the will of the Scots to Britain?
Parliament in Copenhagen
Given that Mrs May droned on incessantly about the “will of the British people”, why was the “will of the Scottish people ignored”, when a manageable system which, I admit, would have had to be modified for the UK, was already available?
*******
In case you missed it, Munguin got some organic tomatoes today.
A slice of turnip and a tomato is on the menu for special guests to the Towers.
Further to Andi’s comment about orange, Munguin is doing his diplomatic best for Scotland.
This caring government minister has suggested that, during the shortages of salad crops, particularly tomatoes and lettuce, we might want to eat turnips.
“A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar…” she said, although she admitted that people liked to have a choice. “It’s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country.” (Does anyone think about “aspects” of lettuce?)
Baldrick liked turnips.
Dr Coffey seems to have an answer for most of the problems of the population of this benighted place.
For people struggling to afford food her solution is that they should work more hours or improve their skills to get a higher income.
So there, you stupid people.
Get your boss to give you more hours, or get the qualifications and become a doctor…
Or better still, become an MP. After all, Dr Coffey charged more for accommodation expenses last year than some people earn for a year’s work and she’ll be eating subsidised food in the Commons dining rooms, plus having £100 a week, tax free, from us, to help out should she wish to eat out. Not to mention that her heating bills will be paid for by the taxpayer. Problem solved!
Spanish supermarket. We need to send them algunos nabos.
And during a question session in the Commons, Labour MP Rachael Maskell said food banks in her York constituency were running out of supplies and asked what the government was doing “to ensure that no one goes without”.
Ms Coffey replied that inflation was “really tough at the moment” but noted the UK had “one of the lowest proportions of incomes being spent on food” in Europe. Are people taking advice from 30p Lee or is it because most of us are spending a massive proportion of our income on heating, and, as we have seen time and again, only having one meal a day.
She probably could have answered the question with one word. Nothing.
Bless Therese Coffey our beloved ‘Nana Terry’ Here she is reassuring Marxist farmers with the love & succour that only a Nan can give. Snuggly like a comfy slipper. She is the polo you suck when cold. She hugs our nation & spits on her hankie to clean us❤️pic.twitter.com/Xz4i5xmLpo
Brutal end to Atherstone Ball Game 2023. The last half an hour of the Pancake Day tradition saw punches thrown & a betting shop damaged as teams battled to gain control of an oversized ball. pic.twitter.com/LPMtAUaA1f
The match, which always takes place on Shrove Tuesday, dates back to medieval times and the two main rules are that you are not allowed to kill anyone, and that whoever holds the ball when time is up is declared the winner.
The game supposedly honours a match played between Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1199, when teams used a bag of gold as a ball.
Shops in the town are boarded up in preparation for its staging, while local children are allowed to leave school early on that day. The two-hour game is played in the town’s main street. The game has been labelled in the media as “the most brutal sport on Earth.”
Funny lot, the Brits, but at least in this “sport” it’s only people (who chose to participate) who get hurt, not animals, who have no choice (foxes, game birds, stags, bulls).
You have to wonder at people who actually believed any of that ****. But it seems they did, probably without giving it any thought at all.
It’s a bit like leaving the Golf Club, saving the £750 a year fees, and then expecting to be able to play a round when you feel like it, pop in for a drink with some of the lads on a Friday night, and maybe eat in the restaurant with your other half on Saturday. Also get the kids along to the children’s party at Christmas and attend the odd monthly dinner dance, all the while enjoying reduced bar prices. Free.
It would have occurred to me that if Britain could leave the EU, yet remain in the single market (which had 4 indivisible elements: goods, services, finance and personnel) and still take back control of its borders, there would have to be some spectacular changes in the idea of borders and taking back control. Or maybe some sort of magic?
Also if that meant saving a (fictional) sum of £350 million a week, why would every other country not want to do the exact same thing? Or did they really believe that Britain was that different, better, superior?
Well, they were wrong about all that.
In fairness they did have some trade deals ready on day one. They were variously more or less the same as the trade deals we already had, considerably worse or so small as to make no difference at all.
As time went on the deals signed by Truss as Trade Secretary were terrible. The deals meant jeopardising the very high standards of hygiene and phyto-hygiene , which the EU practises and will do huge damage to farmers, who had been promised the same level of payments from the magical money tree..
That £350 million was a fictional figure which failed to take account of the rebate that first Mrs Thatcher and then Mr Blair negotiated. They also neglected to mention that after the rebate had been taken into consideration, there were all the grants and funds that the UK enjoyed, most particularly the farming grants, social funding and science grants not to mention a shed load of shared services which came with the deal.
Still, who needs farming and science…?
We were obviously expected to believe that we could take back control of every border, except the one running across Ireland, because obviously no one would even vaguely consider smuggling goods into the EU across a completely unguarded border. So, two years plus on, and they are still fighting over that. The only amusing thing is seeing the DUP becoming daily more apoplectic, and refusing to take part in a democratically elected Assembly in Belfast where they lost the leadership. (My way or the highway politics.)
Citizens’ right in England have already been reduced. It seems that protesting is illegal if the government says it’s illegal, even if it is only one person and even if they haven’t actually done anything yet. Also clearly (as we pointed out the other day, it will illegal to hint at criticism of royals in the august presence of any of them even if the hint is carrying a black piece of paper.
I’m pretty sure too that the security question is also in doubt. Sharing information between EU/EEA/EFTA nations no longer extends to Britain, as Theresa May, when Home Secretary, warned it would not.
The notion that you could strengthen the union between Scotland, England Wales and the North of Ireland by Brexiting is preposterous as the map shows.
Brexit split most of the UK political parties. It has clearly done most damage to the Tories who lost a lot of their best people, but it split the UK into countries that voted for and countries that voted against. And the government made no concession at all until, in the case of Gibraltar and the North of Ireland, it was forced to.
In Scotland, despite every major politician from all the parties (except UKIP) telling us that leaving the EU would be a catastrophe, the English based parties reversed their opinions when England voted to leave.
It didn’t have to be like that. In the Kingdom of Denmark, the will of the three constituent members has always been respected. Demark and Greenland joining along with the UK 50 years ago, while the Faroes remained outside the EU. Greenland also later (1985) decided to leave while Denmark remained. (Real devolution/Home Rule, eh, Gordon Brown?)
The UK’s integrity has been maintained, more or less, although that’s not how the DUP sees it, but only by force and disrespect for democracy. That, of course, is something the UK IS good at.
You will NOT have a referendum says SIR Starmer.
The science co-operation and educational exchanges have come to nothing.
As I understand it the British universities used to do well out of scientific grants and now they don’t. And the Erasmus scheme has been ditched and replaced by a British scheme that is a poor imitation with far less funding… and operates outside Europe.
As for being out of the EU by March 2019? We weren’t.
Finally. It is not certain that migration has decreased since we left the EU.
Although it is true that vast numbers of EU citizens returned to their countries, many of which are rather more prosperous than Britain, thus leaving us with gaps in medical, caring, retail, catering personnel, along with a dire shortage of tradesmen and lorry drivers, immigration from elsewhere in the world may have actually increased since we left the EU.
So, actually, none of it was true.
To be fair, in Britain, we don’t tend to expect that much truth from political figures, but surely 10 out of 10 wrong has to be a record, even for this state.
6. One of his best ever interviews. He managed not to say anything ridiculous there,but as someone suggested, his answer was stuck in 1801, and they didn’t have Zoom back then.
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15. I’ve always wanted to know what there was behind.
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17. It’s not always easy working from home… “Let’s go baby, I have to work”… Sometimes other members of the household are less than cooperative!
A man was detained & searched by police in Cornwall this week for holding a blank sign at a royal visit.
The state of the U.K. in 2023 under repressive new laws to silence free speech & protest, imposed by the far right Tory Regime. pic.twitter.com/FjgUVaZJy2
Apparently Willie and Middleton were making a surprise visit to Kernow and this bloke had a blank piece of paper, which he held up. I suppose it could have been a bomb, cleverly disguised as a blank piece of paper, but it wasn’t.
It was just a blank piece of paper. And apparently that was a crime.
I wonder why they try to keep these visits secret. I thought the whole point was to be seen. Otherwise what are they… and why are they?
Maybe not liking the king is an offence. Rich Sunak did say that he intended to make “vilifying Britain” an offence. I imagine that if that ever came to Scotland, Munguin and I would be incarcerated for life. (Good article, worth a read. Clearly the Rich Boy hasn’t thought it through at all and does he know that the North of Ireland exists?)
Because we reckon that Britbin, its government, its royalty and its lack of democratic accountability are an embarrassing pile of ridiculously outdated fascist sh*t.
Come and get us Rich Boy.
They seem to get their ideas on law and order from Boris’s mates. I hope they’re not going to, like Putin has, start invading countries that they once owned to take them back. Breathnaigh ar do dhroim Éire. Attention Canada. മലേഷ്യ നോക്കൂ
And, Joe, if you see this fluying over Delaware, it might be the Britbin invasion, given we’re a bit short of aircraft.
Russian police arrested this protester for holding a blank sheet of paper, claiming it was ‘illegal activity’ pic.twitter.com/8MrnZkcXfa
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 