Brexit

KK wrote:Well if you look at the government of the last 30 years, I'd happily have Osborne and BIG DAVE back again at this point.

Unfortunately the Tory party and the Daily Mail thought they could reincarnate Margaret Thatcher, now lumbered with her and with no obvious replacement in sight outside of Ruth Davidson, who they can't have (yet). But another female PM, this time the first ever representing the LGBT community, would be a good image to portray to the rest of the world of a post-Brexit UK. But to be honest I think we're going to end up with either Boris (too divisive, half the party hate him) or Amber Rudd.

Surely Amber Rudd won't get it, she was super close to losing her seat last time out. She'd be an incredibly easy scalp for that constituency.

DML wrote:

KK wrote:Well if you look at the government of the last 30 years, I'd happily have Osborne and BIG DAVE back again at this point.

Unfortunately the Tory party and the Daily Mail thought they could reincarnate Margaret Thatcher, now lumbered with her and with no obvious replacement in sight outside of Ruth Davidson, who they can't have (yet). But another female PM, this time the first ever representing the LGBT community, would be a good image to portray to the rest of the world of a post-Brexit UK. But to be honest I think we're going to end up with either Boris (too divisive, half the party hate him) or Amber Rudd.

Surely Amber Rudd won't get it, she was super close to losing her seat last time out. She'd be an incredibly easy scalp for that constituency.

Can't she just stand in another safe constituency? (No idea)

Probably could but must be a pretty good acid test if voters would vote for her anyway.

Hexx wrote:

DML wrote:

KK wrote:Well if you look at the government of the last 30 years, I'd happily have Osborne and BIG DAVE back again at this point.

Unfortunately the Tory party and the Daily Mail thought they could reincarnate Margaret Thatcher, now lumbered with her and with no obvious replacement in sight outside of Ruth Davidson, who they can't have (yet). But another female PM, this time the first ever representing the LGBT community, would be a good image to portray to the rest of the world of a post-Brexit UK. But to be honest I think we're going to end up with either Boris (too divisive, half the party hate him) or Amber Rudd.

Surely Amber Rudd won't get it, she was super close to losing her seat last time out. She'd be an incredibly easy scalp for that constituency.

Can't she just stand in another safe constituency? (No idea)

I kind of want her to stay put as I want the pleasure of knowing my vote helped unseat the banana split.

Errkal wrote:

Hexx wrote:

DML wrote:

KK wrote:Well if you look at the government of the last 30 years, I'd happily have Osborne and BIG DAVE back again at this point.

Unfortunately the Tory party and the Daily Mail thought they could reincarnate Margaret Thatcher, now lumbered with her and with no obvious replacement in sight outside of Ruth Davidson, who they can't have (yet). But another female PM, this time the first ever representing the LGBT community, would be a good image to portray to the rest of the world of a post-Brexit UK. But to be honest I think we're going to end up with either Boris (too divisive, half the party hate him) or Amber Rudd.

Surely Amber Rudd won't get it, she was super close to losing her seat last time out. She'd be an incredibly easy scalp for that constituency.

Can't she just stand in another safe constituency? (No idea)

I kind of want her to stay put as I want the pleasure of knowing my vote helped unseat the banana split.

Only after half a dozen recunts though.

Lagamorph wrote:

Errkal wrote:

Hexx wrote:

DML wrote:

KK wrote:Well if you look at the government of the last 30 years, I'd happily have Osborne and BIG DAVE back again at this point.

Unfortunately the Tory party and the Daily Mail thought they could reincarnate Margaret Thatcher, now lumbered with her and with no obvious replacement in sight outside of Ruth Davidson, who they can't have (yet). But another female PM, this time the first ever representing the LGBT community, would be a good image to portray to the rest of the world of a post-Brexit UK. But to be honest I think we're going to end up with either Boris (too divisive, half the party hate him) or Amber Rudd.

Surely Amber Rudd won't get it, she was super close to losing her seat last time out. She'd be an incredibly easy scalp for that constituency.

Can't she just stand in another safe constituency? (No idea)

I kind of want her to stay put as I want the pleasure of knowing my vote helped unseat the banana split.

Only after half a dozen recunts though.

There was only 1 recount at the last one, and that was requested by Labour. The news started reporting they were doing recounts before the initial count was finished.

Oh god May's session at Parliament is dire.

Lots of Brexiteers throwing out Little Englander soundbites, and genuine questions answered with nothing.

She's just utterly strawberry floated business concerns as well.

Tories are no longer the party of business. They're the party of ignorant nationalists.

A real lack of class from Juncker on leaking that information about his dinner with May.
He’s a piece of gooseberry fool.

Didn’t see Parliament today but this is the pattern now (what Hexx stated - not his interpretation).

Essentially May is still there because no one else wants the job right now.

Hexx wrote:I meant recent - but yeah fair point!

Nearly 3 years of Brown? Crikey

You have to wonder what the political landscape would look like right now had he not bottled calling an election in 2007.

Cuttooth wrote:

Hexx wrote:I meant recent - but yeah fair point!

Nearly 3 years of Brown? Crikey

You have to wonder what the political landscape would look like right now had he not bottled calling an election in 2007.

Political what ifs are amongst the most fascinating.
He’d have had three or four years after the meltdown to deal with the aftermath.
Who knows?

Denster wrote:

Cuttooth wrote:

Hexx wrote:I meant recent - but yeah fair point!

Nearly 3 years of Brown? Crikey

You have to wonder what the political landscape would look like right now had he not bottled calling an election in 2007.

Political what ifs are amongst the most fascinating.
He’d have had three or four years after the meltdown to deal with the aftermath.
Who knows?

I imagine Labour would have won with an even further reduced majority on 2005 or possibly a coalition with the Lib Dems. Could have weathered the recession and come through in 2012 with an improved economy and public mood surrounding the Olympics.

If only he knew.

Possibly. He could equally have come out if it badly with the Tories making greater headway and gains - giving them a small majority in 2012. Or a coalition.
It’s speculation but there are so many ways that could have gone and our political landscape could be significantly different to how it is now
The last ten or fifteen years will probably be studied in depth by future generations.

Given the current situation and the effects it will have.

Cuttooth wrote:

Hexx wrote:I meant recent - but yeah fair point!

Nearly 3 years of Brown? Crikey

You have to wonder what the political landscape would look like right now had he not bottled calling an election in 2007.

2007: Brown wins the election. David Cameron resigns and retires to a pig farm. George Osborne becomes Tory leader but resigns after two weeks when he’s caught snorting coke at Buckingham Palace. Jeremy Hunt becomes Tory leader.

2009: Brown is forced to resign due to a scandal involving his glass eye, Harriet Hartman and a cheque book. George Galloway rejoins the Labour Party and wins the leadership election.

2010: Galloway calls an early election stating “I’m great, we’ll win every seat!”

2010: Labour lose every seat. A massive surge in Lib Dem and UKIP votes mean that the Tories have to go into coalition with UKIP. Jeremy Hunt is so incompetent that he agrees to be deputy PM and Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister.

2011: Nigel Farage loses the EU referendum. He calls another and loses again.

2012: Nigel Farage cancels the Olympics as it clashes with the 5th referendum. He says that it’s “now or never!!”. He loses.

2013: Farage loses the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th referendums.

2014: A change in law means there is a referendum once a week until Farage gets the right answer. The closest he gets is during the 43rd referendum where he loses by one vote.

2015: The UK votes to leave the EU by a majority of 52% (turnout was 17 people). Farage hails this as our independence day. “It’s the will of the people” says Nigel “The people have spoken, we are leaving!”.

2016: Trump is elected and immediately forms an official triumvirate with Farage and Putin. The USA, UK and Russia become a new country known as “Rukusa”.

2017: Everyone commits suicide, except the triumvirate. They declare this a victory.

Even back then was Brown ever seen as much besides a placeholder PM until the next real Prime Minister?

Lagamorph wrote:Even back then was Brown ever seen as much besides a placeholder PM until the next real Prime Minister?

A heavyweight who could have been leader in 97, but 10 years later he was well past his sell-by date.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/23/brexit-transition-period-final-eu-trade-deal-theresa-may

Theresa May has signalled there will be no transitional period to prevent a “cliff-edge” Brexit unless the UK manages to agree a deal with the EU on their future relationship.

The prime minister has been under pressure to help businesses plan for the future by agreeing a time-limited transitional period by Christmas, but she told MPs that this “implementation phase” could only be agreed when a trade deal had been struck.

“The point of the implementation period is to put in place the practical changes necessary to move to the future partnership, and in order to have that you need to know what that future partnership is going to be,” she said.

No chance of a trade deal being agreed in this time.

If we go for no deal and just operate under WTO rules then we can be the new Mauritania

17% of the population live in slavery.

One of the many lies peddled by the leave campaign was that the EU has no trade agreements with countries like America. Actually the EU has hundreds of trade agreements with the US arranged sector by sector to remove non-tariff barriers, all of which will vanish for us the moment we leave in 2019. America is traditionally quite protectionist hence no settlement of tariff issues.

Basically they only looked at trade agreements registered through the WTO and decided any agreement not registered through the WTO did not exist.

Not to say we cannot arrange similar agreements but it will take many years to do so and we will be doing it without the clout of the EU and its highly experience team of negotiators. In other words, we will get eaten alive in a lot of cases unless we are very careful.

andretmzt wrote:17% of the population live in slavery.

Only 17%. That's pretty good. I'll take it.