The Politics Thread

[Joe]

Still find it astonishing that the Article 50 Bill is passing to the House of Lords with no amendments at all.

MPs voted against finding out how much Brexit will actually cost, against protecting the Good Friday agreement, against voting on a final deal, against assuring Scotland and the Union, against exempting EU nationals and against protecting workers' rights.

No opposition whatsoever. The hardest Brexit imaginable.

And now it's being reported that threats are being made to abolish the House of Lords if they try to block the bill or make any changes, because "patriotism" and "democracy". Utterly reckless.

[Ekona]

HoL is essentially useless anyway, they can only delay for 364 days at the most, they can't actually stop anything going through.

[Ekona]

There will be a vote on the final deal though, not that it'll make any difference as it'll be a case of we either take that or end up with WTO rules. There'll be a whip on it anyway, so it'll pass.

[Ekona]

This does show nicely why referendums are a terrible idea.

[Mr.Clark]

Still find it astonishing that the Article 50 Bill is passing to the House of Lords with no amendments at all.

MPs voted against finding out how much Brexit will actually cost, against protecting the Good Friday agreement, against voting on a final deal, against assuring Scotland and the Union, against exempting EU nationals and against protecting workers' rights.

No opposition whatsoever. The hardest Brexit imaginable.

And now it's being reported that threats are being made to abolish the House of Lords if they try to block the bill or make any changes, because "patriotism" and "democracy". Utterly reckless.

Jesus.

If not for the fact I'd be deported in ~2 years, I'd say it was time to move to Ireland.

[Joe]

If you want a clear breakdown of the challenge facing Theresa May right now, read this - http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/02 ... ve-minutes

Whichever way you voted, it's difficult to deny the scale and complexity of what we're about to embark on.

[Ekona]

I really like that article, that's a brilliant find. Rare to find something that's not actually biased either.

I still think they'll simply agree to carry on exactly as we are post-Brexit for another X years until a proper agreement can be done, or in the unlikely event Corbyn is no longer Labour leader and they pose a real threat to the Tories then May will have to simply down tools and close up boarders, to keep the majority of the voting public happy for the next election.

Really, we have no idea what's up until the French and German elections are done with. They're the real power holders here, now we're off the table.

[RB]

I'm still excited. I have the least amount of buyer's remorse I've ever had.

[Joe]

Following up on the previous breakdown, here's how Brexit will affect our food industry (and our national diets), export industry (in the increasingly likely event of falling on WTO rules) and the impact of reintroducing customs checks for UK exporters

Again, this is not about whether or not Brexit is the right decision. That ship has sailed. It's about the size of the task, and whether our current government is up to it. The links above illustrate how far the entire UK trading infrastructure (and economy) is set up for EU-based trade, and that leaving the EU is going to require massive, radical, expensive changes that will take far, far longer than 2 years to implement.

It's depressing, demoralising stuff. I wish I could see things the way RB does, because honestly I could use some of that optimism right now.

[Ekona]

No doubt it'll be an absolute nightmare for the next ten years or so, with extra costs for everyone, but then that was always the expectation wasn't it? I don't think anyone really expected to leave the EU and be better off immediately, short of the half dozed numptys who believed the £350M to the NHS line.

I don't think any government could really be up to a task that size, and would rather see a coalition of parties carry out the negotiations. Pie in the sky dreaming though, sadly.

[RB]

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I imagine there will be a few things that just fall into place and work well but the vast majority of it will be a hard slog.

But that's good because nothing worthwhile is easy.

The EU is an outdated idea for a world that no longer exists.

If we stay in then we'd still face many of the problems we are now going to because the EU needs to change the way it deals with the wider world or it will fail as it is currently beginning to.

There are so many EU members that are close to collapse that they cannot continue bailing them out and claiming everything is fine. There has to be massive change or failure is inevitable.

I feel it will be easier for us as a single strong union to move out of the 50s and join the rest of the world than if we were dragged along in a crowd of bickering euro-nations, at a point in the future when it will be too late to do it on anything but emergency terms.

[kingweed]

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I imagine there will be a few things that just fall into place and work well but the vast majority of it will be a hard slog.

But that's good because nothing worthwhile is easy.

The EU is an outdated idea for a world that no longer exists.

If we stay in then we'd still face many of the problems we are now going to because the EU needs to change the way it deals with the wider world or it will fail as it is currently beginning to.

There are so many EU members that are close to collapse that they cannot continue bailing them out and claiming everything is fine. There has to be massive change or failure is inevitable.

I feel it will be easier for us as a single strong union to move out of the 50s and join the rest of the world than if we were dragged along in a crowd of bickering euro-nations, at a point in the future when it will be too late to do it on anything but emergency terms.

Agree.

[Mr.Clark]

Boy, it's a good thing that Theresa May promised we wouldn't have a snap general election and we've got the Fixed Term Parliaments Act in place to prevent her from reneging on that promise for political gain...

[RB]

You just can't win. Remainers wanted a general election so they could try and derail brexit. Now they have one, they're whining because there's no opposition.

I actually have a bit more respect for her now. She can clearly see that Jeremy Corbyn is a worthless weakling, leading a shower of shit and has taken the correct action of putting the fucking boot in like a strong leader should.

What will be more interesting is seeing how Scotland votes. I'd love to see Jimmy Krankie shit the bed.

[kingweed]

You just can't win. Remainers wanted a general election so they could try and derail brexit. Now they have one, they're whining because there's no opposition.

I actually have a bit more respect for her now. She can clearly see that Jeremy Corbyn is a worthless weakling, leading a shower of shit and has taken the correct action of putting the fucking boot in like a strong leader should.

What will be more interesting is seeing how Scotland votes. I'd love to see Jimmy Krankie shit the bed.

This. He's a fucking cunt.

That other twat, Nicola fucking Sturgeon needs to stfu as well. As a Scot she really pisses me off and everyone I speak too.