I admit to a profound and increasing lack of confidence in Corbyn and McDonnell’s abilities to get poop done.

To be fair though, negative opinion of Boris Johnson is by no means limited to lefties either.

He has been described by a former chairman of the Conservative Party as a ‘mendacious chancer’, for example.

I think the old lady in his own constituency sums him up best... https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.amppr ... 44711.html

I think the old lady in his own constituency sums him up best... https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.amppr ... 44711.html

#filthypieceoftoerag has been trending on Twitter all weekend. That lady has just trumped #pleaseleavemytown man.

If you have a complete and utter pri!ck of a PM what more can one expect?

Agreed and the negative views on Corbyn are not restricted to the right either.

Johnson is trying to do the one thing that will separate him at an election - get Brexit done he kills of Farage, the Liberals main policy is null and void and Labour are significantly weakened. All he has to do is give the SNP a second independence vote and he has cracked it.

I struggle to understand the need for the SNP and who do they represent? Surely all the population is actively represented by the Scottish parliament under Queen Nicola? That parliament could nominate from within to discuss important topics with the UK government. Save 60 MPs and the cost.

He’s trying the one thing that he can at this point but it is far from certain that he’ll be successful. Getting a deal is difficult and no deal could well crack him rather than ‘it’. It’s on a knife edge. Personally, I think he’s more likely to fail, but I also think i’m a bit blind to his charms. His bigger problem is that I don’t think they translate well outside of England. I don’t think the EU will indulge him just to see him smile, as so many English people are seemingly eager to do.

Your issue seems to be more with the Scottish Parliament than with the SNP specifically, yeah? And...

Side note: if Scotland’s hypothetical representative were discussing important topics with a Westminster government that did not contain MPs from Scotland, would the latter still be a United Kingdom government? Wales is a Principality and Northern Ireland is two thirds of a province - though admittedly there were kings of Ulster way, way back.

Unless the EU are building up their part and are going to come over the horizon at the 11th hour, it looks like we're heading for no deal or, more likely, an extension.

With the Tories likely to move even further to the right, to prevent Farage gaining any seats, it will be interesting just where Labour try to pitch their election campaign.

As for whether Scottish MP's being relevant in Westminster, of course they are.
I dont understand why you think they should be discounted and yet are more than happy to se the Tories (theoretically) propped up by the DUP.

Worth remembering that it's having been ignored for so long that has allowed the SNP to gain a stranglehold north of the border and when Mrs May didn't engage with the SNP after the referendum, you can see their point.

Each party tries to look after "their own" and for the Tories, this just doesn't include Scotland, which makes it an "easy sell" for Nicola Sturgeon.

The EU have to come with something - no deal is a bigger disaster for them Germany is already in recession a np deal would be calamitous for them and the rest of the EU which they are helping to prop up.

I have no truck with Irish either take them, the Welsh and Scots out each can send a delegation to discuss UK wide legislation with the English parliament. Corbyn giving Scotland a second referendum would be a disaster for Labour - if they got it you would never see another Labour government in this country.

As for the Tories the only way to head Farage off is to go all out for leave no deal - otherwise he would facilitate Corbyn into No 10.

I’m about 85% sure you’re playing dumb to gull us pompous, humourless remoaners.

If so, you’re doing us a service by saving us the effort of making a straw man. Ta.

German exports to the UK are worth a little over a quarter of UK exports to the EU. They’d be facing new ‘challenges’ with their 4th biggest national trading partner, the UK with their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and so on.

EU GDP is $17.3 trillion, of which the UK accounts for $2.6 trillion. No deal will clearly be a bit shizzle for them, but there isn’t the remotest equivalence in what the EU loses and what the UK loses in terms of trade, or the resulting economic impact.

The EU have it all going for them. Clued up, strength in numbers, totally united. Compare that to the Tories, clueless, divided and changing their views weekly.

The EU know we are in real trouble with a No Deal exit. Tariffs, quotas etc and they believe that we'll be back under a new Gov't within months wanting to re-join.
A No Deal will mean the Common Fishing Policy ends. French and Belgian fishermen have said that if they are excluded from fishing in UK waters then they'll start an indefinate blockade of their ports to UK ferries.
So if our ferries are blockaded out there will be no trucks, no imports and no exports. what we do then is anyone's guess.

I think sometimes he is, like the above (nobody who isn't a moron thinks no-deal is worse for Germany than the UK).
OTOH on some of his ignorant points of detail, he's just a typical Brexiteer who has spent two minutes thinking about something and then thinks they are an expert on it and that actual experts are just metropolitain elites.

The German side of our family are over for a couple of weeks at Christmas. I'll save your post to show them after a few beers; I have never actually seen someone pi ss themselves with laughter, but would put good money on this being a first.

I never said the impact on Germany to the UK was greater than the UK to Europe - what I did was Germany is not in a great position right now and yes if you believe Maynard Keynes everything is cyclical. Germany's well being is very important to the EU project anyone who thinks this is not the case is delusional.

There influence is far more than mere numbers - personally I don't see how we can ever leave other than no deal - logic says it is not possible any other way.

So clever clogs if the impact on EU of no deal is such minor thing to them why are they so bothered - just let the UK go.

The EU is not holding us hostage - they are 'letting us go' - but not in a way that damages the integrity or the security of the member states; which is exactly what we would be lobbying for them to do if this was a Frexit or a Grexit or whatever else.

What you really mean is that they won't let us go without hand-delivering the unicorns that Nigel and Boris and co promised you they would - so now you're having a hissy-fit.

I didn't say it would be a minor thing. Why do you repeatedly resort to lying & untruths when you make pathetic, groundless statements that are shown to be just that? It's not to hide your embarrassment is it?

Germany successfully integrated Eastern Germany at an estimated cost of 2 trillion Euros. They got on & did it. The trade deficit with the UK will, to quote our woman assaulting PM, be chicken feed.

BTW, I'm still waiting for you to show one post where I made things up, as you stated I regularly did.

No body is lying here - your are suggesting that you German friends will be laughing - don't see much laughing going on in Brussels. If it weren't for our own MPs including our own Speaker siding with Europe against their own country their would be a lot more glum faces in Europe. The UK leaving is a huge issue for the EU - you and you relatives might think its a laughing matter, I doubt Tusk/Barnier/Jonkers/Merkel etc are laughing.

You have been named and shamed so life is too short to go through hundreds of pages to pander to your over inflated ego.

Why do you insist on portraying other people who want what is best for their country as traitors? Why do you insist on portraying our peaceful neighbours as an enemy, to be hated and feared?
What kind of person speaks like that? What kind of person [ithinks [/ilike that?

Come on.
Mrs May couldn't get agreement within her own cabinet and Boris has had to withdraw the whip from 21 of his own MP's, with others still deeply concerned with the direction of travel, towards a no deal Brexit.
Boris's fag packet arrangements, with effectively 2 borders on the island of Ireland, drive a bus through the Good Friday Agreement and appear unworkable for all but the Tory inner circle.
As for laughing. If it wasn't such a serious issue, the whole world would be laughing at the UK government (if we can actually still call it that)

Having sold us something which was always impossible to deliver (with a deal), rather than admit that perhaps a mistake or two had been made Boris & Co have now had to take us down a path to self destruction in the name of "no deal".

Some of the numbers coming out are eye wateringly bad for all of us in the UK and still there is no realistic likelihood of life being better Iin the short to medium term if we leave with no deal.

The figures may mean an instant return to austerity, to cover the government borrowing needed just to plug the holes in the post Brexit dyke.

Why did Macron announce that the May deal would give the EU "tremendous leverage" against the UK within hours of the deal being struck? Not very friendly and peaceful IMO. And what is best for our country is not necessarily what people like Blair and Bercow think.

Tut, tut. My relatives in Germany are bloody furious. They much prefer a peaceful, co-operative Europe to the one some of them experienced. There is also the small matter of how the British ones amongst them who travel to a neighbouring EU country every day for work are going to get on. Or move backwards & forwards to the UK. What they will laugh at, & won't miss the irony, is an ignorant xenophobe quoting factless cliches from a newspaper who supported the Nazi's in the 30s

50% aren't, 50% are.

You call it ego, I call it honesty. I'll give £100 to the Tory party for any example you give of me making things up.

I agree about - she didn't want to leave and soon took over from Davies when it looked like he might be making progress towards a deal. Everything May touched was a disaster - the Foreign Office, the 2017 GE, the Brexit negotiations she was one of the worst if not the worst ministers we have ever had.

Everyone said including Cameron if we leave it will be on WTO terms - nobody could be under illusions that that wasn't the case. No deal is better than a bad deal etc.

How many times has the IFS made predictions that have actually been accurate? Are they basing their predictions on Yellowhammer or on the latest situation - even the BOE have reduced downwards the impact of no deal.

It is obvious that their will be short term impacts - given the likes of Germany are already in recession the impact of pound euro may not be be as bad as initially thought - who knows.

Let's be fair compared to the monies Labour is going to borrow need to buy all the utilities/trains etc the no deal impact whilst large will pale into insignificance by comparison.

The Good Friday agreement is being used as if Ireland will become another Syria - more people are getting killed in London than ever were in Ireland 3,500 people died over a 32 year period so 100 a year 2 a week is that really worth negatively impacting 60m people for? Lets get some perspective here - this is yet another blocking mechanism to stop Brexit.

After all of your "rant", you are basically saying "sod the people in N. Ireland" and if Brexit trashes the Good Friday Agreement, something that EVERYONE has said they wont do, it's tough.
Do you not think that it may have been better to first of all, realise that there may be a problem in Ireland, before making wild fantasy promises about just how easy all of this was going to be.
You create numbers about people being killed in London but, these are not quite the same as the sectarian killings of the 70's and 80's are they.

Desperate is the word that best describes your current position so, at least you have something in common with our Prime Minister.
Fag packet ideas instead of workable solutions doesn't help any of us.

Gambling with all of our futures is just bloody ridiculous and even if/when we leave, there will still need to be a close trading relationship (for both sides), which will mean that as suppliers into the EU, we will still have to comply with much of their legislation.

I've got an old empty packet of Embassy no 6 somewhere and I'll send you it, just in case you need to scribble down your ideas on solving this fiasco.

David Davis flushed his reputation down the toilet with remarkable brio, I can’t believe anybody would want to recruit him to their argument! Mind you Boris Johnson is Prime Minister, so clearly opinions vary. I accept that Cameron may have said that about the WTO, but it wasn’t something I expected. On the other side, it is easy enough to find footage of Farage lauding the success of Norway as an example of what can be achieved outside the EU (with huge amounts of gas and oil, and a tiny population, obviously).

Given that many of us see Brexit itself as negatively impacting the UK, the hypothetical deaths of 2 people a week in Northern Ireland (or Brighton, Birmingham, Warrington etc.) does seem a high price to pay. The murder rate in London is slightly higher, per week. But not by head of population. The population of London is about 5 times that of Northern Ireland.

Also, assuming we’re cool with a few violent deaths here or there, the economic impact of a return to the Troubles would be significant.

ATEOTD, killings are the responsibility of the killers. But this is a real issue - the UK isn’t the only place where people feel strongly about national identity, sovereignty and real/perceived wrongs done to them by people from across a few miles of salt water.

Didn't he also say that WTO was the absolute worst case scenario?