Politics Arms

[ommmward]

This is a thread for chit chat, banter, memes and emojis about current politics.

It is NOT intended as a fight club.

It is NOT intended as a place to rehash old arguments about the merits (or otherwise) of Brexit - please pop over to the Brexit forum for that.

Politics threads sometimes attract posters who make personal attacks or who hold their views so very strongly that they find it hard to be respectful of other opinions. Please do not engage with such posters; MN has a handy report button for any posts that fall outside their posting guidelines.

Now, pull up a bar stool, and I'm sure one of our lovely staff will be over with a menu shortly.

[Arseaboutdarkly]

So has it been verified by MNHQ that Brexit doesn't count as current Politics ommward?

[howabout]

MNHQ Arse and Silvery are both questioning your reasoning and they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I agree with both of them

Reposting from other thread but may have resonance to this situation. Curating the narrative and shutting down debate is problematic.

"Complete change of subject but pertinent to the relevance of the bloated BBC.
They sent Katty and Christian and Emily to Iowa and we all ended up none the wiser. Couple of tongue in cheek tweets from AF Neil this am gave a much clearer flavour of the debacle. Anthony Zucker, who is based in the US has a detailed piece on the website which gives the full picture but will never be reported on any of the News programmes on TV.

I happen to have contacts who were at the Caucus. They want to know why they just can't go and spend 5 minutes casting their ballot like normal folks. grin Their inside verdict was Mayor Pete and Biden tied with Bernie and Warren a couple of notches back. Will be interesting to see if this ties up with the Democrats' thrice verified tally - certainly wasn't what the pollsters had.

Zucker was able to verify that The Donald polled over 90% in the Republican caucus. grin The BBC news anchors on TV last night forgot to mention that the Republicans were even bothering.

The Donald is kinda enjoying himself today, but difficult to blame him when across the aisle is such a demonstrable shambles - makes their claims about his incompetent White House ring a wee bit hollow.

I am no fan of The Donald but it says something when the Other Side are making him look good."

[time4chocolate]

I had just drafted a very non partisan, non wankery post encompassing a couple of relevant political points only to find I cant now post it and it’s wiped what I typed. That’s a few minutes of my lunch hour wasted. How chuffing frustrating.

It feels like it’s all gone a bit BBC😉

Cba to type my post again, I’m going to go and get a sandwich🥪.

[DustyDiamond]

Who knows Arse 🤷🏻‍♀️

I tried really hard not to let the thread become a rehash if old arguments though

For the record, contrary to the stance indicated by MN - I never, ever created the threads as one big goad

It was truly my hope that eventually they'd shake down into general non-partisan exchanges

Thanks for starting a new thread Ommm 💐

[scaryteacher]

Omm Cheddar for most things but gruyere is good in a croque. Roquefort is fab on its own or in a sauce for steak. I'll take your Roquefort and raise you Blue Vinney, Shropshire Blue and Blue Wensleydale Lily. I am lucky in that there is a great cheese shop not far away where I spend far too much money for Dh's liking.

[ommmward]

The BBC is undeniably bloated, howabout. I wouldn't mind, except for people being forced to pay for them...

[scaryteacher]

Copper The Commission can impose a budget; they nearly did in 99 when Prodi took over from Santer.

[ommmward]

The budget thing is scary.

I love a bit of Somerset brie, me.

[scaryteacher]

I prefer Cornish Brie, but then, look where I live!!! Somerset is good if I can't get Cornish.

[scaryteacher]

I don't think the budget is scary, but there is a certain sense of schadenfreude about it. Surely, knowing Brexit was going to happen, plans might have been made by the fonctionnaires for this even with a change of Commission?

[howabout]

I think the idea was, and perhaps still is, that the UK was going to end up paying for access almost as much as our net contribution. So there would be very little hit to the Budget. However the UK leaving gives those who want to cut the budget some traction and otoh those who want to increase it will also see an opportunity to make the case for more centralised redistributive policies.

[scaryteacher]

From another blog I follow: A group of nations (am hearing 11 but none the big 4 Eurozone economies) are rooting for a revised total budget, reduced by the UK contribution, then another 3% reduction and with no provision for any enlargement and some other initiatives. The next 11 moves are to then debate a new budget before June 30th (interesting date).

[ommmward]

I mean, it looks scary from the point of view of the countries whose contribution might be scaled up without them necessarily agreeing to it (have I understood that right?)

[scaryteacher]

Or that they get less back in terms of the CAP etc perhaps. Rutte wants to reduce the NL contribution, but I don't think he can.

They've all known that the UK leaving would put a hole in their budget, so the 27 must have been expecting something like this, or perhaps they thought it was all going to blow over and go away.

[Coppersulphate]

Scary, thanks for the note about the EU budget. Surely the Commission is the unelected lot. If so how can they impose a budget on the Parliament. That would be like our Civil Service imposing a budget on Parliament.
ClassicDom would finish them off very quickly if that were to happen.
I can see us paying for access to any trade agreement but we will be paying in until the end of this year so I can't see where any reduction is coming from.

With the Democrats, it just goes to show that Apps are not the be all and end all.
But their "real" method of voting is bizarre.
I just hope they get somebody who will defeat Trump....but I want a decent trade deal first. Signed and sealed and then a Democratic President. But I fear that Trump will win again.

[Coppersulphate]

Have we brought the coffee machine over to this pub or do we just have a new LL?

[ommmward]

I brought the coffee machine!!

[Coppersulphate]

Dusty, Singing, Epic, Sally where are you?
We miss you

[HateIsNotGood]

Well, I'm sure I can't fathom what daftness is going on now - on MN that is - why did the Arms have to move? Something to llicencing problems?

I've had to extricate myself from Parish Councils/Community Partnerships/School Guvners before and really have to hold myself back when I think it might be a good idea whenever I consider doing it again....but, blimey, here t'is similar, seems I can't get away from it.

I have no idea what the 'licencing laws' are that The Arms have fallen foul of, but I'm sure if I could be forwarded a copy, this Clerk would ensure that the Arms followed them.

Anyway, just popped in to say that how Dusty articulated her pov in her Arms post "Tue 04-Feb-20 07:56:05" aligns very much so with mine.

Hopefully back later.

[scaryteacher]

You just couldn't make this up....

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/02/04/brussels-tells-uk-report-us-climate-change-return-brexit-trade/

[HateIsNotGood]

I'm not surprised scary - it is rather laughable the the EU is trying to hold the UK to 'standards' essentially lesser than those already set and led by the UK, ofetn over a long period of time.

As well as the environment I include animal welfare, workers rights and the 'gem' that always makes me laugh - Aviation. If anyone can point me to a country that ever held higher National Standards than the UK's CAA I'd be happy to hear about it.

[Walkingdeadfangirl]

What the heck has gone on here. OMG I dont know what you are allowed to say on MN anymore. I wish we could have some actual guidelines on what is and what isn't permitted. Is anything to do with B*it banned now?
And it seems we are unable to have a nonpartisan thread either.

Maybe the solution is to have a Britannia Arms - where only pro independent UK posters are welcome to discuss politics in a friendly way? Would that work?

I just dont think left wing MN posters want us here. 😥😥

[HateIsNotGood]

The only thing I can think of is that MN would prefer The Arms to be in Brexit? Of course it could be 'pettiness' by MN (or the bias of the Mods on duty) but I'd rather hope that's not the case.

Perhaps someone from MN can advise please?