The Political Thread

[Michael Knight]

Steve Green I didn't mean to imply people like your friend, I was genuinely thinking of these 'celebs' here who have not moved like they said they would. I apologise if I offended you.

My firms future isnt looking too good at the moment with all this upheaval over brexit. I truly despair of the current political climate. I don't normally swear a lot but 'gobshites' seems appropriate for the bulk of our political class. Think ive been watching too much Father Ted.

I just hate the hypocrisy of the aforementioned celebs etc who are not challenged etc. Its like all those Labour MPs that been plotting and not backing Corbyn at all since he got elected by members (twice) and now all of a sudden they applauding him in Commons chamber. Has to be seen to be believed. Say what you want about the man but the constant criticism he receives from media is just frankly hysterical.       

[The Legendary Shark]

Well, I'm not leaving. I love this place and I'm not letting a bunch of delusional, power-crazed psychopaths who seriously believe they can actually run an entire country and all the people in it scare me off.

[sheridan]

IATS was talking about general people moving to EU countries, you lumped them in with celebs as gobshites, one of my friends got a job in Germany and is staying out there because of Brexit.

"these people that threatened to leave UK if Brexit happened wont"

I've just given you an example of someone I know who has done exactly that.

Here's another - a friend and his two children have had to go to Germany, as his wife (and mother of his children) is, apparently, the wrong nationality now, even though she'd lived in the UK for the past ten years.

[sheridan]

Steve Green I didn't mean to imply people like your friend, I was genuinely thinking of these 'celebs' here who have not moved like they said they would. I apologise if I offended you.       

Can't say I recall any famous people saying they'd leave - perhaps I read different media to you?  Any examples?  I do recall Jim Davidson saying he'd leave the UK if Labour got in to power in 1997.  Unfortunately that appeared to be a lie.

[GordonR]

Steve Green I didn't mean to imply people like your friend, I was genuinely thinking of these 'celebs' here who have not moved like they said they would. I apologise if I offended you.       

Can't say I recall any famous people saying they'd leave - perhaps I read different media to you?  Any examples?  I do recall Jim Davidson saying he'd leave the UK if Labour got in to power in 1997.  Unfortunately that appeared to be a lie.

Mark Millar said he'd move to Canada if we voted to stay in the EU.

Phew. That was a close one.

[Jim_Campbell]

Mark Millar said he'd move to Canada if we voted to stay in the EU.

"If things in this country stay exactly the same as they are now, I'm leaving!"

Umm... OK...

(OTOH, the pound tanking has probably worked out quite nicely for MM.)

[Michael Knight]

I don't think Jim Davidson leaving the country would be enough. Perhaps if he left Planet Earth that may far enough away.

[Michael Knight]

Imagine Dredd's 'Titan' penal colony, only with instead of crooked Judges nasty 'celebs' there instead.

Jim Davidson, Katie Hopkins, Jeremy Clarkson, Justin Bieber we could go on.

Lets build this already!!!!!!!!!

[Theblazeuk]

You can add Nigel Farage to the people who said he'll leave Britain if Brexit happens (OK he said "If it doesn't work out" and given he's got caveats about the whole thing I don't think there's much chance of a positive outcome)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QBGfFk43FI

[IndigoPrime]

Here's another - a friend and his two children have had to go to Germany, as his wife (and mother of his children) is, apparently, the wrong nationality now, even though she'd lived in the UK for the past ten years.

My Twitter feed is full of EU professionals leaving, many of which are taking tax-paying Brits with them, whose taxes will now feed into some other country. Meanwhile, immigration from the EU is plummeting, which the Tories are cheering about, despite it already having a massive knock-on effect on a number of key industries. And now those business folks who were pro-Brexit are suddenly waking up to what's happening, arguing that – for some UNKNOWN reason, THEIR particular industry should get a free-movement exception. What a colossal fuck up this all is.

It's also interesting to look back at the UK's history regarding free movement. In short, when it was ended from the Commonwealth, our economy went to shit pretty quickly. Free movement from the EEC/EEA rapidly and dramatically turned things around. How long before we realise the mistake that's being made this time, if ever? (It'd probably help if the UK actually admitted that regarding free movement, it never enforced any of the limitation laws available to it in the first place.)

[Proudhuff]

Not since '82 has an incumbent government taken a seat from the opposition in a by-election. Well done Corbyn!

ahem...

[Professor Bear]

LOL

[Will Cooling]

Amusingly, the constituency boundary review that was all about 'fairness' is now apparently dead in the water since the new electoral calculus suggests it wouldn't hand the Tories a 30-seat majority and might imperil the likes of Boris Johnson and IDS. Oh, and hand Sinn Fein a majority at Stormont.

So let's stop pretending that was ever about fairness, shall we?

It would hand Sinn Feinn a majority of Westminster seats. It wouldn't change anything in Stormonth because its a different parliament.

And sure it wasn't about fairness. But let's not pretend the opposition was about fairness either. Both sides looking at what they thought was best for them.

[Will Cooling]

Having seen Link Primes's soon to be home how many Britains will apply to live in Ireland since it is still in the EU? Could a big influx of foreign immigrants upset the Irish and the Northern Ireland Peace process?

They're not applying to live in Ireland. They're applying for Irish passports. Rather than seek to travel across Europe with a British passport they could travel with their Irish one.

[Will Cooling]

Here's another - a friend and his two children have had to go to Germany, as his wife (and mother of his children) is, apparently, the wrong nationality now, even though she'd lived in the UK for the past ten years.

My Twitter feed is full of EU professionals leaving, many of which are taking tax-paying Brits with them, whose taxes will now feed into some other country. Meanwhile, immigration from the EU is plummeting, which the Tories are cheering about, despite it already having a massive knock-on effect on a number of key industries. And now those business folks who were pro-Brexit are suddenly waking up to what's happening, arguing that – for some UNKNOWN reason, THEIR particular industry should get a free-movement exception. What a colossal fuck up this all is.

It's also interesting to look back at the UK's history regarding free movement. In short, when it was ended from the Commonwealth, our economy went to shit pretty quickly. Free movement from the EEC/EEA rapidly and dramatically turned things around. How long before we realise the mistake that's being made this time, if ever? (It'd probably help if the UK actually admitted that regarding free movement, it never enforced any of the limitation laws available to it in the first place.)

This is a red herring.

The problem with the ways we could mitigate freedom of movement is that they are contray to have we've traditionally organised things in Britain. So we have a universal welfare state rather than the social insurance systems that exist on the continent. The state has far less ability to demand you prove your existence by presenting valid ID. The ability to police immigration in the context of Freedom of Movement would mean we'd have to adopt several unpopular measures that nobody within Britain supports.