Nigel Garvie

31 minutes ago, nauseus said:

If posts like these were written in English, more of us might be able to actually understand them.

That's a bit rich Nauseus, we are supposed to be accommodating to posters whose first language is not English. Try again, I found it easy to understand.

1 hour ago, Saint Nick said:

Said it before, saying it again: if Bernie isn't the candidate, the Democrats can kiss the election goodbye and the world is in for another 4 years of fascism in the making!

Trump will mop the floor with Biden on so may issues, Bloomberg is a big bunch of dollar- funded nothing!

All Trump's got on Bernie is "socialism, marxism, communism" and that has been tried for decades, making Sanders the most popular politician in the USA...by a mile!

 

You have heard of Jeremy Corbyn? Tried to take a left wing platform to the ordinary voter and got hammered. His manifesto made so many promises of freebies that no one believed him. Whilst I still think Warren is the real deal what would a Scot know, she's out of it anyway. What I can't stomach is the ugly bitterness of Bernie supporters towards her.  She is not a Bernie clone, she has many excellent and well argued ideas, of her own. So many Bernie supporters remind me of the brain free youth in Momentum. The Labour Party leaders spent so much of their energy purging anyone in their own party who didn't believe that Jeremy was the messiah, that they forgot that the Tories existed, it just looks so similar in the US.

Kindly take on board, Bernie is not the messiah. (But not a very naughty boy either - I will grant you)

Anyone who can beat Trump, the worst President the US have ever had by a country mile, should be supported. 

27 minutes ago, izod10 said:

You mean there are actually people going to sit and actually read this elongated putrid claptrap, Seriously I mean it Rubbish Rubbish Rubbish    Has Daft Paddy joined you yet?

It appears that you found this detailed factual post too much to handle, and resorted to childish insults.

44 minutes ago, izod10 said:

What a load of bloody rot,from the original,all irash claptrap ratbags, just do not know why do not pack up,all copy and paste,usually from the leftie rag The guardian (that nobody reads ,or opens to read the downloaded <deleted>

  Its France France alone that are creating headaches, because they have just around 2%  imbalance in trade,the rest far far more.  Any trade deal will bring far more  far more advantages to the UK.

 

   keep up the claptrap  ,Has daft paddy or gormless Mick joined up yet?

I am not Irish, I have no intention of fighting their battles which they can do very well themselves, but I cannot fathom what your sad obsession with them is. The thread has nothing to do with the Irish apart from the fact that they are a small part of the EU. 

I'm just one more TV contributor putting you on ignore,  you'll be sending your poisonous posts to yourself only soon.

1 hour ago, rhyddid said:

More he shake and more the economy is going to be a disgrace, also due the global recession for the latest events.

Incompetence, still remain the key word of this administration.

Incompetence yes, but it doesn't do justice to the scary inadequacy of the Tory front bench. If you reach the stage where you only promote fully signed up yes persons, you end up with a Trump type administration. 

Saying the cabinet is incompetent is like saying the universe is big. Not technically incorrect, but doesn't communicate a sense of scale. The Universe is unimaginably vast and expanding at the speed if light in every direction and dimension (So they say).

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

???????????????????????????? at 55M dwarfs the others whether @Nigel Garvie likes it or not (yet lacks it's own Parliament!) 

 

I know of course what the population of England and many other countries is. This is just a matter of fact which I neither like nor dislike. Many smaller countries -Portugal, Denmark, etc live happily next to larger neighbours. I do get the impression though that some posters here are resentful that Germany has a population of c. 84M, significantly more than England, which seems a bit silly to me.

Ahh the Commonwealth, HRH, etc, as relevant to life in the 2020s as Beefeater cod pieces!

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

Jokes apart I just think it would be better if Scotland,  Northern Ireland & Wales went along with backing England and be a UK. 

I certainly favour a free Scotland, however a loose federation of Nations where certain matters of mutual interest could be agreed and acted on together for the benefit of all, without any nation losing their independance, would be acceptable to me pro tem. 

Surprising that Europe haven't adopted this idea really..........oh, wait a moment. 

The way you put your statement, clearly shows your viewpoint:- "It would be better if Scotland,  Northern Ireland & Wales went along with backing England and be a UK."

This would have been more likely to produce positive responses:-  "It would be better if Scotland,  Northern Ireland, Wales & England worked together as respected partners."  

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

Agreed. It's worked well enough for 300+ years.

There were times, the Victorian era in particular, when Scotland supplied well beyond their share of cannon fodder for the Empire. For example in India every 3rd Brit was a Scot, so I have read. It is the nature of things that times change, and what worked well in the past (For some anyway) is not always the best option for the future. Of all the former colonies which one has run back begging to be re-admitted to the Empire? 

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

I agree. The only reason the Provisional IRA were even prepared to discuss peace was because the USA declared it's War on Terrorism. As a terrorist organization the IRA would have been targeted and the NORAID funds ceased.

 

 

Maybe the US should cut off Israeli money and then we might see some sense from them also.

But to topic:- Just to give a little bit of balance, If people are busy doing so much remembering they should remember the UDA (Still hand in glove with the DUP) and the UDF, as well, let alone the Derry massacre and the bloody hands of the British government. What the RoE establishment really don't like about Sinn Fein is that they are left wing, and could damage the embedded interests of the two other parties, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The IRA link is moribund, and just a stick to beat them with. People are fed up with the status quo, rather like the band which only knew 4 chords!

1 hour ago, david555 said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/25/keep-chlorinated-chicken-ban-to-win-trade-deal-eu-tells-uk

Daniel Boffey and Jen Jennifer Rankin Brussels

Tue 25 Feb 2020 10.29 GMT

EU demands UK keep chlorinated chicken ban to get trade deal

Exclusive: clause in negotiating mandate for Michel Barnier will create hurdle to US-UK deal

 

 

The EU will demand that the UK maintains a ban on chlorinated chicken as the price for a trade agreement with Brussels, in a move that protects European meat exports and creates an obstacle to a deal with Donald Trump.

 

On the recommendation of France, a clause has been inserted into the EU’s negotiating mandate to insist that both sides maintain “health and product sanitary quality in the food and agriculture sector”, according to a copy leaked to the Guardian.

 

The paragraph, in a newly entitled section of the document for the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, called “Environment and health” provides a catch-all insurance for the EU that certain methods of food production – particular pesticides, endocrine disrupters or chlorine washes for poultry – will not be used in the UK.

 

more...

34 minutes ago, nauseus said:

Demand this, punish that. The EU still doesn't get why we left. A bit like the Labour Party, they don't seem to have a "lessons learned" department either.

20 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

And you think these bluffs from the EU will work? If you do you're mistaken. 

I don't think we should overcook the goose here (Not an EU regulation incidentally).

It is simple, if we want to sell foodstuffs to the EU then we have to abide by their standards of food production, why should they buy them from us otherwise. We already have these standards in place, so what is the problem. If we want to import <deleted> from the US to eat, that is up to the UK, as long as we don't try to re-export it to the EU. 

If we believe we have higher standards on some items than the EU, then it is perfectly reasonable to negotiate an agreement regarding  EU adherence to them. That is exactly what we have been doing for decades, negotiating like adults. Sadly we have now reverted to posturing like children. 

Reluctant though I am to use another animal analogy, it appears that BJ is just being pig headed! 

I suspect that I am not alone in finding it difficult using the laugh emoji when marking my feelings on another TV members post.

We have like, thanks, confused, and sad, all pretty straight forward. 

The problem with the laugh emoji is that it can mean two very different things.

1) The post is funny, I am amused, it is a good joke etc

2) The post is so far off the mark, or so silly, daft, etc that it is something that you laugh AT, rather than laugh WITH as in 1) above.

Does anyone share this difficulty, and I wonder if there is a solution? 

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

Higher taxes for the rich yes.

But thats not what the Conservatives will do is it?

Yes higher taxes for the rich in particular, but closing tax loopholes, offshore tax avoidance, and taxing Amazon etc profits here (Not in Ireland, Luxembourg etc)  would bring in many many billions. This is something that the Tories will never do as so many of them are stealing from the general public in exactly this way. 

Again and again we read that Northern European countries  (Not UK) come top in quality of life, including pensions, and social care just for a start. They value it, and they pay for it.

Meanwhile the Dutch prime minister confirms that they are currently talking to over 300 UK firms now planning to move to the Netherlands. Brexit - the gift that keeps on giving!

8 hours ago, DannyCarlton said:

Which is why Trump was desparate for us to have a full and complete separation from the EU. He sees the EU as America's/his main rival. Divide and conquer is his game. He will ensure that the US can dump all it's unhealthy shiite food on us, at a premium price. GM crops and chlorinated chicken are on their way to a supermarket near you. With the strength of the EU behind us we have been able to resist all this for many years. Now prepare for your country to be raped and pillaged by Trump with the help of his poodle Boris. He will even seek to profit take from our NHS.

 

But stitching us up over trade isn't his only aim, He sees the EU as a snowflake when it comes to warmongering. The US needs a poodle as it had under Blair's government. Boris is that poodle. Watch out Iran, China, North Korea and Palestine, Trump has an attack dog to take into battle as it did during Gulf 1 & 2, Afganistan and Lybia.

 

The World has never been a less safe place than under this new unholy and enforced alliance.

 

 

And Putin also of course, it suits him perfectly, and we are still covering up the report on Russia's interference in the referendum. The laughter rings round the Kremlin every day, especially when he sees the UK leaders and their followers imagining that we have suddenly become a big player on the world stage. Putin has been pushing funds towards European right wing extremists like Orban and Salvini, somewhat unusual behaviour for a Communist you would have thought. I wonder if he has some ulterior motive - surely not!

Boris's brexiteers have betrayed the nation, and turned us into Putin's puppets and Donald's dupes. 

Sold out to two of the biggest political thugs in the world for blue passports. Pathetic beyond belief.

Oh sorry, I forgot about those awful EU civil servants, oops I mean unelected bureaucrats, now let's focus on that and see how long we can hide from the truth.

7 hours ago, bartender100 said:

Here are the full facts if you would like to digest the, of course the USA is the biggest market, but we are talking about EU trade to UK

 

"We can buy where we want now...............nutty comment, we always could buy wherever we wanted to"

 

Wrong, we were always subject to EU regulations on what deals we did outside the EU

 

In 2017 we had a £67 billion deficit with the EU

 

Why not just say "Our previously biggest customer within the EU" then it is clear. 

Of course we were not able to make separate trade deals outside the EU, but that is not what you said. We could always buy wherever we wanted, every country can. If we had bought from somewhere that the EU had a trade deal with, then we would take advantage of the good rates that a powerful block like the EU can get for itself - just standard practice.

Only in some feverish fantasy filled dream are other countries going to come running to do special deals with us that are more advantageous to us, than the ones we already had through the EU, just because we are British. 

In terms of trade we have just voted to be small and relatively weak in our negotiations, compared to being large and powerful in negotiations as part of the largest trading block in the world.