Westminstenders: Why the Irish Border isn't a Remain/EU Plot

[RedToothBrush]

I hope the events of this week give the ERG the kick up the backside over this that they need.

I doubt it will, but I live in hope. The alternative is too horrid to contemplate.

I'll leave this here instead as a reminder of what choice Brexit was always going to come down to.

Happy Easter everyone.

Will they be getting blue passports do you think?

Well this is the whole point of Brexshit isn't it? We all get to have lovely blue passports.

I should try to avoid sarcasm in future...

born
Ah but we are both forgetting that there is an alternative reality where ANPR can read the wiggly tails of lambs and the forehead whorls of heifers

All the coloured Irish cobs should be ANPRable but bay or grey sport horses and irish draughts might be tricky. Connemaras will be a problem too.

Of course! no problems then.
My father’s family farmed near Forkhill in Armagh, I remember the roads that had been made unusable (my aunt later sold the farm without telling anyone, causing big family ructions. I don’t really know how she managed to do it, and when she died she left most of her money to the Church!).

I suppose sheep are easy because they already have a built in 'baacode'.

LeClerc
We have clearly just solved the Backstop. What was all the fuss about ?

I suppose sheep are easy because they already have a built in 'baacode'

OT, but people will understand why I mention it ...

(As an aside, I'm fascincated by the growing gulf between what I would consider news, and what seems to fill the chatterspace ...)

Was amused and interested to see Donald Trump weigh in and tell Americans to get vaccinated and Have the shot.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-measles-vaccination-they-have-get-shot-n998881

unless my memory is failing, weren't idiots anti-vaxxers more likely to support Trump ? I wonder how they'll react to him advising them to see sense ?

Just change ABERdeen to ANPRdeen and cattle sorted too.
It’s like one of those word puzzles, eg change LOVE to HATE in four steps by changing a letter at a time, except easier.

Actually, LOVE to HATE is quite easy, I find.

Because of the E.

I think Spotify is 'trolling' me or whatever as it has just come up with Tears for Fears 'Mad World'.

DGR
Trump does not want to have an epidemic on his watch.
Measles was declared eradicated in the US a while back.
Wakefield has abused their free speech laws to whip up a storm
the number of cases is rising exponentially
it could turn into an election issue if he does not stamp on it now

Wrt Donald Trump on the NHS, from a link upthread to an Express article.

Trump is grandstanding in his statement on single payer healthcare countries. He is pitting his core supporters against single payer systems, seeking to blame the commies overseas for the problems caused by the greed of American pharma.

His statement is a case of divide and rule. His core support and the poor in general are being hit very hard by his demolition of the ACA, aka Obamacare. They are facing huge price rises for medication, the most egregious being the price of insulin with many patients dying because of insulin rationing.

The problem with American healthcare is rabid pro-capitalist ideology, the Republican Party, the greed of pharmaceutical companies, the pharma lobby and Donald Trump himself of course, and the solution to America's healthcare woes would be a single payer system as espoused by Bernie Sanders.

The Democratic primaries are the context of his remarks. Maybe Sanders is having an impact on the cohort who might have been swing voters at the last election. Maybe even the core are having doubts about who will really benefit from the presidency of Donald Trump.

Hoping some Democrats will soon demolish this most recent lie. Neither medicine consumers elsewhere nor better healthcare systems elsewhere are the problem when it comes to the high cost of American prescription drugs.

Next Tuesday's meeting should be interesting
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48078468

Alex Wickham @alexwickham
EXCLUSIVE: The government is raising tuition fees for EU students after Brexit

Home fee status and financial support to be withdrawn from EU nationals starting courses at English universities in 2021 in Theresa May's latest crackdown on foreign students

Crackdown on EU nationals also applies to further education courses and apprenticeships. Irish students will be exempt from the changes.

Damian Hinds' proposals set to spark a huge cabinet bunfight... cabinet ministers and even some DfE ministers are said to oppose the plans:

www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/higher-fees-for-eu-students-at-english-universities?__twitter_impression=true
The Government Is Planning To Make EU Students Pay Higher Tuition Fees To Study At English Universities
Exclusive: Home fee status and financial support for EU nationals will be withdrawn from 2021 in a new crackdown on foreign students by Theresa May.

Reminder that May is the only Cabinet minister who has consistently thought students be included in immigration figures. But now we have this. A huge deal to a lot of people living in the UK.

There are currently 135,000 EU students studying in the UK and universities fear that charging future EU students higher fees will turn them away from applying for courses here.

Tuition fees for international students vary, with undergraduates paying between £10,000 and £38,000 per year.

Been to see avengers endgame.
The end was sad, uplifting and....surprising. I won’t post any spoilers BUT some racists will be PISSED :)
Sadly saw 3 ukip placards in gardens on the way home.
I’m feeling so dejected.

RTB
Surely that will not apply to current students
or those with residence
Tresemme is such a xenophobic bitch. The sooner the May 3rd bloodbath happens the better.

The university education sector is/was a good earner for UK plc for income from students but the spinoff of academics who remain in the UK and of course money paid for housing and 'life' while in the UK.
UK universities had/have a good reputation so why not kill them off?

Matthew Paris in Times today reckons that the outcome will be either revoke, another referendum or WA. No political will in Parliament for no deal, & WA won’t pass due to deadlock. Conservative party will disintegrate, with diehards deserting to NF or UKIP. So his money is on referendum or revoke.
He is very matter of fact about Tory disintegration, and this from a man who was waxing lyrical about the need to reclaim his beloved party from the fanatics only a month or two ago.
I hope he is right.

@Tobee, I have to agree wrt the quality of current British pols with the exception of Nicola Sturgeon and maybe a few others, but Bradley is an egregiously poor example. Coveney comes across as a statesman whereas she comes across as the very junior person recently hired to do a little filing.

Coveney's resume includes stints as minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, as well as Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Defense, as well as backbench spokesman roles, and as a MEP - during this time he authored the European Parliament's report on human rights around the world and was a member of the EP delegation for relations with the US. All major portfolios both in Ireland and in the EP.

Moanranger
Unfortunately Matthew Paris is only partly correct. The WA will be signed if the UK leaves, either 'now' or when the UK gets hungry.
The fact that any other options avoiding the WA (apart from revoke) are being mentioned indicates how badly the UK electorate are being lied to.
A referendum/ PV/tiddlywinks contest are only different means to deciding revoke or WA.

In addition to the reasons already outlined by many PPS for current piss poor politicians and utterly shameful state of political discourse I would like to add the British press, which is the real power in British politics.