If preparing for a no deal Brexit isn’t organization, I don’t know what is. But sure, if you wish to call that unorganized, I won’t hold it against you. — NOS4A2
I don’t see how a deal is the only way to go, especially if that deal is no good. May’s deal, for instance, was deemed a bad deal. Rather, It would be shooting oneself in the foot to accept a bad deal. The no-deal needs to remain on the table as another option. — NOS4A2
Yes, the same Lib Dems who opposed Labour's war in Iraq. — Michael
Which everway you turn there are intractable problems like this. More cold hard facts for the leavers to chew on. — Punshhh
How is Royal Assent obtained in the UK? — Galuchat
Hint: Is it Parliament, or the Queen's Government which makes laws? — Galuchat
What's your point concerning Brexit ? — Amity
I'm from Ireland. The kink here is a potential return to violence. If the UK crashes out with no-deal, there'll have to be a hard border on the island, and that means the Good Friday agreement is down the tubes. That's a deadly serious issue. — Baden
European officials have accused Boris Johnson of “reneging” on pledges to uphold the Good Friday agreement, ahead of the prime minister’s first meeting with his Irish counterpart.
Johnson will meet the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, in Dublin on Monday at a tumultuous moment in the Brexit process, with only 52 days until the UK’s departure. Talks are set to be tense as fears grow in Dublin and Brussels that the British prime minister is backsliding on promises to protect the tightly knit economic and social links on the island of Ireland.
“The commitment to all aspects and all the provisions of the letter and spirit of the Good Friday agreement recently seems to be taken more lightly than before,” a senior diplomat from a continental member state told the Guardian. “This avoidance of the hard border, it is not just a desire, it is not just about preferences, it is legal obligation.”...
...A UK government spokesperson firmly rejected suggestions the government was not committed to the Good Friday agreement. “We are committed to the common travel area, to upholding the rights of citizens of Northern Ireland, to ongoing north-south cooperation, to retaining the benefits of the single electricity market. We remain firmly committed to peace in Northern Ireland and the Belfast agreement.
“The Belfast/Good Friday agreement neither depends upon, nor requires a particular customs or regulatory regime. The broader commitments in the Belfast/ Good Friday agreement include parity of esteem, partnership, democracy and a peaceful means of resolving differences. This would be best met if we could explore solutions other than the backstop.”
“We have been clear that we are happy to accept a legally binding commitment not to put infrastructure, controls or checks at the border. We hope the EU do likewise.”
— Jennifer Rankin
It’s been obvious for decades that the eight-word British constitution established in 1689 – what the crown assents in parliament is law – is a decaying, time-worn construct on which to protect and advance today’s democracy...
...Those countries that use referendums a lot, Switzerland and Ireland, for example, have elaborate rules for how they are conducted. In Britain, typically, there are no pre-agreed rules, just ad-hoc legislation arising from the particular power conjuncture of the day: the Cameron government on the run before its rightwing Eurosceptic zealots...
...To win then and now, those in favour of EU membership needed to recognise they had to trump the narrative of an undemocratic Europe by recognising more profound democratic failings at home. Balking at such radicalism, Remain instead found itself the advocate of a hard-to-justify status quo; an archaic state, a decaying democracy and rampant social inequality inflamed by fears of immigration. Leave was allowed to blame it all on the EU – cover for their ultra-rightwing ambitions.
A wholesale change of mindset was needed. Remain should have stood for a re-democratised Britain that put power in the hands of the people and for transformative economic and social change that would make Britain better, not worse. To leave the EU, it should have said, would be to abandon that prospect. — Will Hutton
...It has been clear from the outset that the people behind Brexit have very clear intentions.
The EU is a capitalist entity that not only rejects the worst aspects of the US system but has the clout to resist its encroachments.
The disaster capitalists who want to discard laws designed to limit the ill effects of capitalism on employment, the environment, the climate, food, health etc and unleash an unrestricted race to the bottom will get even richer if Brexit goes through.
This was always the purpose behind Brexit, whatever lies have been put up to hide it. These are not people who will be harmed by a no-deal Brexit; on the contrary, the potential to take advantage of it is almost unlimited.
— Jeremy Cushing
The British and Irish governments agreed there would be no hard border on the island of Ireland. Free movement north and south. That was part of the compromise that ended the war up there. Dumping that commitment in pursuit of a hard Brexit is as unpincipled as China reneging on its agreements with Britain over Hong Kong.
What is Jeremy Corbyn's current condition for agreeing a general election? — Galuchat
“The bill that is going to parliament today needs to pass. It needs to pass all its stages. It needs to go through and have royal assent – and once we’re confident they can’t crash out and no deal is taken off the table for 31 October, we will support a general election,” he said. — Corbyn's spokesperson
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.