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.

@Violetparis

I think an increase in support for Welsh independence is also a huge problem for Labour, I can see Wales going the same way as Scotland.

The problem Plaid are going to have to overcome, if they want to get anywhere near the support the SNP have, is the image of them that they only care for the farmers/landowners votes up here in the North and while they continue to ignore the towns and villages its giving rise to nonsense like the 'abolish the welsh assembly' party and the Tory party (2 different smells off the same turd) although I think Saville-Roberts is doing her best to try and address some of that

We could re-introduce eths and thorns, without much problem - think and this for example. It's not like introducing phonetic spelling where you have problems with cassels or carsels or talking about things (ðings?) done larst week or last week.

Then there is ae of Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic, which we could re-introduce.....

But this would not please the Brexiters - it's still too European. What we need is to change to
日本語 or 日本人 for those of us who like to keep things simple.

I agree that Plaid Cymru suffers too much from being seen as northern and tied to the language - but how much of the lack of language is due to it having been actively suppressed in the 19th century?

But up to about 40 years ago the SNP was very much a minority interest - and are there not differences between people in Scotland? The concerns of people in the Highlands must differ from those in the Central Belt and yet the SNP has found a way of unifiying them? Or so this seems to me watching from outside. Is it also the case that at present the SNP has a problem with being what it's against (Westminster/rule to benefit Home Counties Tory England) and not sufficiently what it's for? Or is this just a distortion by the English Press?

With the caveat that the EU haven't yet ratified Boris deal to start with, what are the legal remedies that were agreed upon for a breach of it ?

I seem to recall the EU wanting something immediate and not contingent on lengthy bunfights in various courts.

Absolutely horrified to see that the loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have now announced they are suspending their support of the Good Friday Agreement. Well done De Piffle and every fuckwit who follows you.

@FatCatThinCat

Absolutely horrified to see that the loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have now announced they are suspending their support of the Good Friday Agreement. Well done De Piffle and every fuckwit who follows you.

Be interesting to see which innocent civilians get blown up first in place of the Brexiteers who caused this all.

I imagine it will be difficult to get house insurance in Northern Ireland again ?

Be interesting to see which innocent civilians get blown up first in place of the Brexiteers who caused this all.

This is absolutely shit, but de Pfeffle won't care and Gove didn't like the GFA so will probably mouth pious platitudes while secretly being pleased. A significant number of English people will neither know nor care, as long as it doesn't affect them.

Thorn (þ) is the slightly-better-known "lost letter" but there's also Eth (ð) which made a breathier "th" sound and also could be replaced in typography with a y. Furthermore there was Wynn (ƿ) which was supplanted by the invention of two u's stuck together

They still exist in Icelandic. Its a beautiful language. I could just listen to it all day long

We may well be seeing a lot of Iceland place names i the news with these letters before you can work out how to say Þráinsskjaldarhraun...

One of my skills is being able to say Eyjafjallajökull

I love Iceland and really enjoyed working with my Icelandic colleagues, both when they were my customer and then when I was working as a consultant for them.

The Alþingi is (contrary to what is often claimed by Westminster ) the oldest Parliament in the world and used to be held in Þingvellir which is a beautiful place, specially if you visit just as the sun is coming up.

A significant number of English people will neither know nor care, as long as it doesn't affect them.

Well, let's see how bright the loyalists are. Current evidence is "not very". But it might be a cover. But they've been pretty much out manoeuvred at every turn so far.

On the subject of loyalists and the Good Friday agreement...

The EU has now pushed back the date to ratify the Brexit trade deal because of UK govt plans to delay start of trade checks between NI/GB.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/04/uks-plan-to-extend-brexit-grace-period-infuriates-irish-and-eu-officials

You can straddle the mid Atlantic ridge at Þingvellir and have one foot on the North American plate and one on the Eurasian.

[quote UltimateFoole]On the subject of loyalists and the Good Friday agreement...

The EU has now pushed back the date to ratify the Brexit trade deal because of UK govt plans to delay start of trade checks between NI/GB.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/04/uks-plan-to-extend-brexit-grace-period-infuriates-irish-and-eu-officials[/quote]
Answering my own question:

The trade and security deal with the UK is provisionally in force but it is yet to be formally ratified by the parliament. Its provisions would fall away if MEPs failed to give it their backing, leaving the UK with a no-deal outcome, including tariffs on goods.

Would our Government actually know or care, at this stage, if the deal is not ratified by the EU?

They would have the full breakage they wanted and the ability to blame it on that nasty federal continent.

My heart sank when I saw the newspaper article on the GFA. We are an Army family and I don't want those days to come back.

Would our Government actually know or care, at this stage, if the deal is not ratified by the EU?

Here's an interestingly timed story. Let's see if threatening the GFA halts this development ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56279525

The US has agreed to suspend tariffs on UK goods including single malt whiskies that were imposed in retaliation over subsidies to the aircraft maker Airbus.

Tariffs will also be lifted on UK goods like cheese, cashmere and machinery.

The duties will be suspended for four months while the two sides seek a long-term settlement.

But the hard liners want No Deal and if they can blame it on the EU then it's all to the good as far as they are concerned.

It's a pity for them that Trump didn't win though.

@LostToucan

You can straddle the mid Atlantic ridge at Þingvellir and have one foot on the North American plate and one on the Eurasian.

I have a picture of a 10 year old ds "straddling" the plates

@LostToucan

You can straddle the mid Atlantic ridge at Þingvellir and have one foot on the North American plate and one on the Eurasian.

I LOVE Iceland. For various reasons it is very close to my heart.

I love how you can be in Europe but technically North America at the same time.

Þingvellir is a beautiful place. Definitely somewhere I intend to go back to many times if the world allows.

No, the SNP is seen as only caring about the centre of Scotland (the Central Belt). There's plenty of unhappiness about it.

Dashes in to thread from the land of Local Government.

After stopping British voters from having elections last year
other countries managed to
the ones scheduled for May 6th are going to be interesting
as the effects of the April import checks will be clear
and
there is a massive legislative balls up brewing where
unless MHCLG get their act together
Lots of councils will legally cease to exist on May 20th
(County, Unitary, Borough, District, Parish)
due to the sunset clause in the COVID virtual meeting rules

Rees Mogg clearly does not like remote voting
and is not listening to experts
it will be messy

I am resigned to the Tories milking the vaccine roll out for all it's worth and getting good results - in England. I won't speak for the other parts of the UK.

Peregrina
Vaccine rollout will be rattling along
BUT
Holidaymakers will not be allowed to bring home cars full of food and wine from France
Those who fly will find themselves in the problematic queue in Spain.
Import clearance checks will be causing random delays.
And goodness only knows what will be going on with Northern Ireland.

Less than two months ago was the Capitol riot.
Two months is a LONG TIME in politics at the moment

but yes, the Libdems and Labour really need to get their arses in gear

Problem is that the holiday season won't be in full swing if at all by 6 May, so people won't have had a chance to feel the effect.

Plus, since postal votes are going to be encouraged because of Covid, the additional effect of the UK starting to apply WTO rules proper checks on imports from the EU from April (unless they put it off again due to a lack of border staff ) may not itself have been felt by the time that people post off their votes.

School holidays are 2nd to18th April
Proxy voting on the day is being allowed this time ...
we shall see

Proxy voting has always been allowed, hasn't it? I have had proxy votes for my family members in the last few elections. I was usually the only one turning up as a proxy, and they had to get the instruction book out to find out what to do.

But if the Leave voting general public are as adamant as some Brexiters are that they voted Leave to ensure future not yet invented vaccines could be rolled out quickly for unknown diseases, then I am not hopeful that any of them will think rationally and think 'Johnson has been shit - 120,000 dead, billions wasted on failed track and trace - think how that could be spent on the NHS, therefore I will vote for the best alternative'. Nope, it will be 'vaccine rollouts good, therefore I will vote Tory'.