Westministers : Saving the Union

[RedToothBrush]

Apparently we need a tunnel. Just like we needed the £53 million failed Garden Bridge.

Nice little earner for anyone involved.

Headlines like this won't help Nicola Sturgeon's bid for Scottish Independence/rejoin the EU;

28th February
Euro funds concern: Scots government faces up to £190m in EC penalties due to spending irregularities.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/19124079.euro-funds-concern-scots-government-faces-190m-ec-penalties-due-spending-irregularities/

A perfect grasp of English again

Corrected my post for you;

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala @ NOIweala Feb 24
Thank you PM @ BorisJohnson for an insightful conversation on @ WTO reform & for championing this during your G7 presidency. The drive to make the WTO work better for people, for inclusion, a more sustainable & greener recovery from COVID19 is imperative. WTO is ready to work with you.

Boris Johnson's charm working overtime already.

[quote Clavinova]Headlines like this won't help Nicola Sturgeon's bid for Scottish Independence/rejoin the EU;

28th February
Euro funds concern: Scots government faces up to £190m in EC penalties due to spending irregularities.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/19124079.euro-funds-concern-scots-government-faces-190m-ec-penalties-due-spending-irregularities/[/quote]
Not as much as it would hurt Boris "Brexit" Johnson and his failure to get Brexit done, surely ?. After all, if any part of the UK owes the EU and I note at this point the article is about owing the EC money) money after 2021 then it's a failure of his oven-ready deal.

So the real story is how on earth can this happen after Brexit ?

You'll have to do some more c'n'p ing. Or even reading.

The Chinese are allowed a maximum of 2 children. Good for them. They really invest in them.
What I'd like to know is what will happen to the UK if they start breaking the WTO rules and generally pissing off the other members? What happens to the UK if the country is thrown out of the WTO?

@buckerrucker

The Chinese are allowed a maximum of 2 children. Good for them. They really invest in them. What I'd like to know is what will happen to the UK if they start breaking the WTO rules and generally pissing off the other members? What happens to the UK if the country is thrown out of the WTO?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispute_settlement_in_the_World_Trade_Organization#Compliance.

DGRossetti
So the real story is how on earth can this happen after Brexit?

From my link;
The Scottish Government faces a penalty of up to £190m because of irregularities in spending hundreds of millions in Euro funds which have stretched back six years, the Herald on Sunday can reveal.

After all, if any part of the UK owes the EU and I note at this point the article is about owing the EC money) money after 2021 then it's a failure of his oven-ready deal.

But most people will automatically think, big, bad EU however you want to frame it - I posted, Headlines like this won't help Nicola Sturgeon...

But most people will automatically think, big, bad EU however you want to frame it - I posted, Headlines like this won't help Nicola Sturgeon...

I'm not really interested in what you wanted to talk about. I'm much more interested in the fact that despite being told we are free of the EU - by own own ebullient PM - it seems there are still ongoing obligations to the EU. A much bigger story since it affects the whole UK, not just Scotland now you have bought it to my attention.

And as I was suggesting yesterday ... I don't think Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish Independence movement. In much the same way Boris Johnson is not the Tory party.

I don't think Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish Independence movement. In much the same way Boris Johnson is not the Tory party.

I wonder if we will start to see the same conflation here as they do in the US that to some the GOP is now the Trump party

Watched this a couple of days ago and thought it would interest some here, he deals with some of the Brexit vote data sets and I remember that at the time when Wales voted leave I wondered what level of English immigration contributed to that and he answered that for me

I don't think Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish Independence movement. In much the same way Boris Johnson is not the Tory party.

I wonder if we will start to see the same conflation here as they do in the US that to some the GOP is now the Trump party

Oh we already have seen the conflation. In the English media. Which by and large seem to totally not get how other countries work. Even when they've been part of the "U"K for 3 centuries.

DGRossetti

You are in a bad mood today - perhaps this will cheer you up:

All through the weekend, LBC were running government export advertisements for small businesses: export to Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto ... Japan, Mexico and Canada are members of CPTPP of course - the free trade pact we have applied to join.

So we all getting ready for the influx of anti independence unionist bots between now and the local elections?

WTO director-generals must co-operate and conference with world leaders, with whom they may, or may not, agree.
It was just said that the conversation was ‘insightful’ and that Johnson is championing WTO reform. That is all.
This is just diplomacy, and marking out parameters for future priorities.
I suspect Johnson’s ‘charm’ doesn’t really work with world leaders as they know it conceals self-interest, and an ability to lie and break laws.
But they have to work with him.

Clav
Please write something original rather than just C&P from Twitter.

🐿 The distance from the Earth to the Sun is about 148 million km, whilst the distance to Alpha Centauri is reckoned at around 41.59 trillion km. Because both numbers end in "-ion" this makes them basically the same, and therefore we can just as well import our photons from Alpha Centauri as from the Sun. 🐿

So we all getting ready for the influx of anti independence unionist bots between now and the local elections?

Who needs a bot?

The Times today;

Scottish independence camp loses longest ever opinion polls lead.

Support for Scottish independence has dropped to 50 per cent for the first time since June last year, a poll has shown, suggesting that the civil war within the SNP has dented the campaign to break up Britain.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-independence-camp-loses-longest-ever-opinion-polls-lead-s35d38jnh

Who needs a bot?

@JustAnotherPoster00

So we all getting ready for the influx of anti independence unionist bots between now and the local elections?

Not quite sure what their efficacy would be on posters with no vote in Scotland ?

DH went to buy easter eggs today from the British Shop in the city as we always do. Sadly this time is was pretty much, do you want Wispa ones or Wispa ones. 'Fucking brexit coming over here and stealing our easter eggs.

I'm neither a Bot nor a unionist - just someone living in Scotland. The regulars on this thread are looking at the independence question with blinkers on. Nationalism in Scotland really isn't very different from nationalism / Brexitism in England. It's about emotion, and not being prepared to look at the cold hard facts of the enormous problems that independence would bring. And the politicians are as dishonest and manipulative as they are in London. Or not far off. The wokeism is far worse than in England though, and things are looking very bad for women here. Personally, I would LOVE to have the chance to be in the EU again. But I'm coming to see, very reluctantly, that Scottish independence would be likely to be a disaster. There's already talk of people selling up to move down to England before house prices fall.

There's already talk of people selling up to move down to England before house prices fall.

Talk being famously cheap, of course.

Personally I can't see any equivalence between English nationalism and Scottish nationalism on the basis that England - unlike Scotland - is not and has never been a lesser half in the Union. It's a little akin to an antebellum slave owner wanting to secede from the US telling you that his predicament is the same as his slaves ...

Or not ...

What rubbish, DG. In what sense are Scots slaves to the English? A lot of it is emotional, we're Scottish and they're not, William Wallace worshipping nationalism. There's ENORMOUS emphasis on the wars against the English that happened over 700 years ago, FGS.

I'm neither a Bot nor a unionist - just someone living in Scotland

But I'm coming to see, very reluctantly, that Scottish independence would be likely to be a disaster. There's already talk of people selling up to move down to England before house prices fall.

Not calling PP a bot but were going to see a lot more of the last sentence

I voted to Remain but....
Im a Labour voter but...

Nationalism in Scotland really isn't very different from nationalism / Brexitism in England

The Uk had equal votes to other members of the EU, Scotland has no such thing, constantly voting against things done unto them by predominantly an English Tory party, so away with your false equivalency

Accusing everyone who disagrees with you of "fake news" is unimpressive, frankly.
One of my reasons for moving to Scotland was the hope that at some point in the future Scotland would go independent and join the EU. I loathe the Westminster government and was very invested in supporting the Scottish government / SNP. But they really are a shitshow. The argument they ran last time round (before I moved here) was very poorly supported from a financial perspective. This time round, the benefit of Scottish oil has gone, there's the Covid disaster to clear up - with such a big bill to pay, and the loss of so many jobs - there's the continuing problems of Brexit and there's the huge problem of bordering a non-EU country which is likely to be hostile. Apparently the non-partisan prediction (I think this was pre-Covid though) is that from an economic point of view independence would be 3 times worse than Brexit. I can try to dig this out if needed, as can't remember the body which produced it.
The trans rights situation is very extreme here, too.
Have you ever considered the fact that 50% of the Scottish population are against independence, and that some of them might actually voice their opinion on this thread? It doesn't mean we're bots. So why not actually address the issues?

Have you ever considered the fact that 50% of the Scottish population are against independence, and that some of them might actually voice their opinion on this thread?

I think anyone in the UK who supported Remain is very well aware of finely balanced divisions. And how they were drowned out by the LeaverBots these past few years.

Personally I always thought Inderpendence and rejoining the EU would be an uphill struggle.
The EU doesn't do Nationalism for obvious reasons.
And Scotland will fail to meet the criteria for the Eurozone.
Quite apart from whose currency they will use to achieve entry.