spiffy
8991
I was fresh off the boat in 2010, but it seems that was the time the Lib Dems were decimated, from a coalition with the Tories. Like any good vampire, the Tories seem to have a knack from draining the lifeblood of other parties when they’re sagging and come back stronger.
They suffered from “backup quarterback” syndrome. The less they were in power the better they looked. Once they finally got their share of power after pretty much a century without any they almost immediately gave up one of the staples of their election campaigning over abolishing tuition fees.
They did manage to secure a referendum on proportional representation but Cameron effectively neutered this by the way the question was asked on the paper (now doesn’t that sound familiar?)
Is the sea border actually acceptable to everyone in NI? Because I saw many people saying how the land border is going to get people killed, and that a sea border is much better in that regard, but is it? Or is it just going to change who ends up killing people about it?
By the terms of the Good Friday agreement (something Biden has very much signalled to the UK that it had better not start messing with) there can be no hard land border between Northern and Southern Ireland, under the terms of the EU there must be a hard border between those inside and outside the customs union (which N. Ireland now is) the deal with the EU meant that they compromised and imposed border restrictions between the UK mainland and N. Ireland (to ensure that the UK didn’t just funnel all it’s trade into the EU via N. Ireland thus dodging customs checks and appropriate tariffs.)
What this really means for the loyalists is there is (in their minds) now more chance of a union between the 2 Irelands because the UK has defaulted on one of it’s major promises, they feel betrayed and let down by the UK government (not for the first time) but absolutely anyone could (and did) see that we couldn’t leave the EU and have both of these things be true.
A hard land border between the 2 Irelands risks the wrath of the US government (who mainly brokered the Good Friday Agreement) and it’s relatively important Irish lobby within (who are Catholics), thus ensuring no trade deal with the US. Something Boris desperately, desperately needs to pull off.
Either way someone is going to be very, very pissed off and the history of Ireland tells us it definitely only takes one to tango when it comes to violent protest leading to armed insurrection.
The main casualties of this will, as always be the ordinary men, women and children of N. Ireland who will be caught in the middle of this maelstrom of religious, political and social lunacy…
But but…Boris and the brexiteers said we could have our cake and eat it too…
Good summary here from the Independant
Thrag
8997
And now for a little cognitive dissonance from Sir James Dyson.
Haha, your parents took a reverse mortgage without telling you and now the bank takes their house! You get nothing.
E - wait, why is this in the UK thread?
Aceris
9001
Because the UK housing market is even more screwed up than most others.
I mean, it’s a UK paper writing about people in the UK.
So, not exactly Brexit, but is His Royal Hairness Boris in any actual trouble over these renovation accusations?
Define trouble. There’s zero chance of him resigning or facing material sanction.
wavey
9005
Hold on now, let’s wait until the official investigation reports, I’m sure that…
But the Prime Minister’s spokesman confirmed Mr Johnson will remain the “ultimate arbiter” of whether he broke the ministerial code.
And he won’t recuse himself, even though he is the target of the investigation.
… oh.
A lot less trouble than if it transpires he actually said “let the bodies pile high” in response to refusing to entertain the possibility of extending lockdown measures.
That will sink his prime ministership no question.
Banjax
9008
You’re more hopeful than me. I have no doubt that he said it, it’s been briefed to credible journalists from multiple sources that he did say it.
Whether it breaks through to be a vote loser for the Tories and due to it he gets pushed out I’m not convinced of.
His performance in PMQs does show that he can feel the noose tightening though.
I also am perfectly prepared to believe he said it. I would say that his flat out denial of it, calling those who said he did “liars” while spending some time dodging the flat issue (but not outright denying it) would indicate he knows which of those two is the more likely to lose him his job.
If it’s proved he said it then the Tory party will (I believe) just jettison him overboard. He becomes an absolute liability in any campaigning to be done at any level from local elections up and an instant free hit for anyone opposing a Tory in any capacity. He won’t be able to be interviewed without it being brought up endlessly and it’s not something he can lightly dismiss with a bit of abject latin or reference to “whiff-whaff”
Are we still expecting politicians to be held accountable by voters for saying outrageous things?
