F*** Boris March

Characteristic that Corbyn might see Singapore of all places as “the bottom”…

I’ve little doubt he’d rather see London as a new Caracas.

Interesting pause for thought here for those who discount the UK as a competitive force.

England 19 - All Blacks (New Zealand) 7 !

So we beat the dominant force in Rugby last night - and beat them well to gain a place in the World Cup Finals in Japan.

Wales Play South Africa (shown at 9 am BSTtomorrow (Sunday) ) - If they can beat the Springboks - That will be an “All Uk Final”

"Up The TAFFS !" :joy:

Not really fair on Corbyn - his argument is that the Tories intend a “race to the bottom” on rights and standards, the “Singapore on Thames” quote is not from Corbyn.

I recall seeing the Singapore reference back perhaps 9 months ago in the FT, would suspect that the Labour leader would be an unlikely author.

Anyways, seems we are safe here in NI with Boris’s great new deal, no racing anywhere for us :slight_smile:

Edit:
DUP leader Arlene Foster has urged Boris Johnson to renegotiate his Brexit deal after her party sent the prime minister “to the naughty step”.

So states DUP leader today… says more about the DUP than anything else.

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Why ? - That’s simply not going to happen and if it does, they’ll all be back again in a couple of weeks talking about the “Next” extension.

Macron’s very interested in posturing. He’s just full of himself. Especially now Merkel’s on the exit route.

Watch next week - if it’s a ‘flexiextension’ then that means Macron gave just a little, if it’s 3 months then he gave a lot.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and Macron are a closer team than May/Macron and the fact that they converse in French is a huge difference to Macron - Johnson made plain his hope for Oct31 to Macron and remember that this same date was only reluctantly agreed to by France.

More pound buying in the week ahead je crois?

The People are ready to declare “Christmas” - to the Turkeys !

Even if they have to wait until May 2022 as dictated by Cameron’s dreadful Act !

It is of course possible that the Legal Advice taken by the EU confirms the statement that "the withdrawal request came from Parliament - NOT the Government"

Whereas the EU are prevented by their own rules from negotiating with anyone other than “Government” - This may well explain their reticence !

We shall have to see wht the ECJ makes of that, and indeed what the other Nations within the EU 27 conclude from this demonstrated readiness to undermine the Sovereign Governments of member Nations !

The EU took the letter from the UK PM on it’s face value - i.e. the Uk wants yet another extension.

The 27 ambassadors took the decision Sat to agree to extend, but the actual heads of Govs need to decide the time frame.

I mentioned before that the 27 have shown remarkable unanimity in all of this, I noted that way back over 2 years ago - that remains the case still.

Lord Owen and others who predict a break in the ranks are wrong - everything goes thru the coordinating committee - there will be no break among the 27 until the UK are finally out.

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The only letter from the UK PM was to say that Boris believed another extension would be the wrong solution.

The unsigned photocopy of a Parliamentary dictat, which you refer to was sent under cover of another “letter” from “a source”. If a decision has been made within the EU - to act upon that, there are a number of issues which a litigious objector could readily test in court.

Any such action is yet to be seen / taken.

The Government of the UK sent no other letter.

I really wouldn’t worry about “Mr” Corbyn too much - Assuming Boris manages to get his voter reforms through and assuming Large Urban Areas have the “Postal vote” system made rational, “Mr Corbyn” will evaporate like a lump of dry ice !

Even if that doesn’t happen until AFTER the next Election, Labour is stone dead from an Electoral point of view.

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Text of No. 10, Downing Street, London headed letter addressed to President Tusk from Boris Johnson, covered by two other letters, one a personal letter between both men and the third, a covering letter from Tim Barrow, Britain’s ambassador to the EU, explaining the point of the previous letter.

No.1 letter:

Dear Mr President,

The UK parliament has passed the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019. Its provisions now require Her Majesty’s government to seek an extension of the period provided under article 50(3) of the treaty on European Union, including as applied by article 106a of the Euratom treaty, currently due to expire at 11pm GMT on 31 October 2019, until 11pm GMT on 31 January 2020.

I am writing therefore to inform the European council that the United Kingdom is seeking a further extension to the period provided under article 50(3) of the treaty on European Union, including as applied by article 106a of the Euratom treaty. The United Kingdom proposes that this period should end at 11pm GMT on 31 January 2020. If the parties are able to ratify before this date, the government proposes that the period should be terminated early.

Yours sincerely,

Prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The second letter as i said was more personal, I’ll not post all the boring stuff,it starts off:

Dear Donald

It was good to see you again at the European council this week where we agreed the historic new deal to permit the orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on 31 October.
When I spoke in parliament this morning, I noted the corrosive impact of the long delay in delivering the mandate of the British people from the 2016 referendum. I made clear that, while I believe passionately that both the UK and the EU will benefit from our decision to withdraw and develop a new relationship, that relationship will be founded on our deep respect and affection for our shared culture, civilisation, values and interests.

The third letter - the covering letter from the UK ambassador:

Dear Secretary General,

As the United Kingdom permanent representative to the European Union, I invite your attention to the following matter.

Attached is a letter sent as required by the terms of the European Union (Withdrawal) (No.2) Act 2019.

He is referencing the first letter, the EU had no alternative but to regard this to be from the UK government as represented by it’s Prime Minister.

The personal letter from the PM made reference to the fact that the PM had made clear to Parliament that he thought a further extension was in no-one’s best interest, however he clarified by preceding with While it is open to the European council to accede to the request mandated by parliament or to offer an alternative extension period.

All a load of baloney - just accept the great new deal and get on with it.

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If Boris is having trouble finding his ditch, I’ll happily point him in the direction of one.

Election then it looks like

He gave just a little - tweet from Donald Tusk this morning.

TuskTweet

What it means is that when the UK Parliament agree to pass the great new deal then it’s out - they have already agreed in principle by a majority of 30

So January 31 it is then.

Election December 9th - looks the most likely way of getting a “forward” at the moment - BUT there are some issues with that. - Like letting all sorts of random punters “Have a vote” perhaps ?

Othe than that - we’re back to sitting there waiting for January 31 to roll round so we can “ask” for “yet another extension” whilst the remoaners pretend to be “Fighting against no deal”.

We’ll see !

Yeah, between Dec 9th and Dec12th.

He’s happy enough to eat those words - he wrote to the EU today confirming acceptance by the UK Govt of the extension - this time he signed the letter.

Still slightly nauseating to see the SNP getting involved in Brexit (and all sorts of UK policy decisions and lawmaking). I mean, their whole raison d’etre is to leave the UK. Whether we’re in the EU or not, they intend to leave the UK. So its dismal to see them sticking their oar in with matters that don’t concern them.

But two other possibilities are apparent.

One, that they actually want to sabotage all UK policy and lawmaking. That way they will more likely win a Scottish independence referendum.

Two, it matters very much to the SNP that the UK has good policies and laws - because they don’t really intend to leave.

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Agreed - They seems to get TWO votes - One in matters which do concern them which they do through their “devolved” Assembly - THEN they get to vote on “stuff” which is OUR business - I think the votes by the “devolved countries” do need to be re-thought somewhat.

I have to say I have wondered just exactly they would do - IF we just said “ok bugger off then” to them ! - What sort of a “Trade deal” would they want to do with US - I wonder ?