BrendanT1993
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Posts posted by BrendanT1993
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Thoughts on a Westminster Election.
Westminster all seems a bit distant from us.
How many Unionists feel like that now, what with Brexit, cold Secretaries of State and a Prime Minister who doesn't appear to take much interest in the place.
Coming across yet another Royal yesterday in the person of Princess Anne prompted the remark that with so many recent Royals visiting, were they filling the vacuum created by a disinterested Prime Minister? By the way, I'm not a monarchist.
It'll be interesting to see the turnout percentages this time. A low turnout might indicate apathy to Westminster and its 'distance' from us here.
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Guys someone explain to me how betting works. I don't understand it.
I'm a homosexual I don't set foot in such places.
But I want to place bets on the election tomorrow. What do you do when you walk in? -
The Scots love Theresa
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It says a lot about how our politics in Northern Ireland has been sidelined in terms of the wider debate but the fact that half our MPs don't turn up and the ones that do seem only to bicker with each other and not engage the wider debate, it isn't that surprising.
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So, Theresa May wouldn't go to the BBC Leaders' Debate tonight because it would be a distraction from preparing for Brexit negotiations.
This, from the woman who called the election!! Surely that was the real distraction, not a couple of hours of debate.
Better still, David Davis, her Brexit secretary, is at the debate observing and commenting. Surely he should be concentrating on Brexit
Corbyn would probably be great for Northen Ireland too. I feel bad I don't know enough about him though
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Just finished listening to the Andrew Neil interview with Paul Nutall, UKIP leader tonight
My goodness, Paul Nutall is such a fool. I wouldn't want to live in any country governed by him.
About migration, he has a 'turnstile' policy of 'if one leaves, you can let one other in.' It's naive in the extreme. It seems he really doesn't live in a global world at all.
Then there was his attitude towards crime and punishment. I'll end there, just in case I lose my sanity and sense of reasonableness.
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Are we assured that the funding provided by this secretive group is from ethical sources?
Don't forget that there was a surplus after all expenses were paid after the Brexit media campaign; that surplus, legitimately on the face of it, went straight into DUP coffers.
Lots of unanswered questions?
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the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson claims he did due dillegance on the £435,000 donation shuffled to him to campaign against Brexit. But he didn't know the man he got it from has close links to the Saudi intelligence service.
https://opendemocracy.net/uk/adam-ra...s-he-didn-t-kn
High bitchiness. DUP whoring themselves out to the highest bidder pretending to support Brexit when they knew it would be a disaster for "their wee country" not giving a shit about the consequences. Convincing their voters it was in their best interests to leave, when in fact they only supported Brexit for financial favours. They even paid thousands for pro-Brexit newspaper ads in London. what a mess -
I really don't think that those who advocated leaving the EU had a notion of the potential mayhem they were causing to those with aspirations to work abroad, and to those from outside the British Isles who have settled here with their families. Knowing many of these families I know how unsettling this is.
One DUP politician said that he "just wanted to be out of the EU!" Selfish and shortsighted with the ring of jingoism about it.
The regulatory frameworks will continue largely unaltered, but will will have lost the power to regulate. How clever is that?
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Toutes nos félicitations, Emmanuel Macron. Vive la France! 🇫🇷
Great to see a centrist, progressive candidate triumph over far right populism.
Politics needs more news like this.
Vote for what unites us, not what divides us.Glad Trump -2.0 lost.
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Maybe the Christian Churches and other faith communities have issued a statement about this, but to date, I haven't seen one, not one single one! This is NOT an acceptable prejudice.
Thanks to Corrymeela for making this statement. We can depend on Corrymeela to stand up and speak out.
The German government has spoken to Putin, for what that is worth. The UK has followed suit. Has the EU said anything?
http://www.corrymeela.org/news/77/on-the-situation-in-chechnya
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She's got the seige mentality?
Mind you, she has to deal with some very difficult men, yes, men, such as Jean Claude Juncker.
Nothing against men, by the way, but Theresa might find Juncker's ladish supremacy a bit hard to handle.
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European leaders are preparing to recognise the potential for a united Ireland within the EU, confirming that Northern Ireland would seamlessly rejoin the bloc after Brexit in the event of a vote for Irish reunification.
In a step that may stoke concerns in Britain that Brexit could hasten the fragmentation of the UK, diplomats are planning to ask leaders of the EU’s 27 post-Brexit member countries to endorse the idea in a summit on Saturday.
https://www.ft.com/content/f4c720b0-2b63-11e7-bc4b-5528796fe35c
there's a long way to go to convince people this will be good long term. For instance, the republic needs to sort its health system out, and stop acting so corrupt over things like water charges, or it's not going to appeal to a LOT of people. Half of our population needs to be gently educated about what Ireland really means, and why unification is even wanted, too.
Don't get me wrong. It's pretty fecked here too. The UK/north's own health system is being dismantled and privatised so corporations can make money with the very same thing they claim is losing money. Here, the NHS it's much worse than in England (or Scotland) already.
We have our corruption up here too -- RHI, golf courses sold to friends of MLAs, despite risking one of our best tourist attractions and a world heritage site, etc. Our economy is still fecked, and always will be, while we're an isolated part of a different country, instead of a united part of the island we're already on.
We'd be MUCH better off united. We just have to make sure the whole becomes the best of both, and not the worst of both. And that means going slow, and making an OBVIOUSLY better case for unification, for EVERYONE.
For now I'm just glad that everyone here will have the option to remain part of Europe, together, and that The North will be constitutionally protected from some of the bullshit that England will try to pull off post-brexit. The UK stripping people's existing EU citizenship away from them is bullshit. The country leaving Europe is one thing, but taking people's citizenship should NEVER happen.
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Sorry if this is off topic but I feel it's relevant, am curious to know what everyone thinks about a United Ireland? Living in Northern Ireland has become stale and I would argue that it should be reunited with the republic.
Northern Ireland staying part of the UK is like staying with your partner who no longer loves you and no longer wants to have sex with you. But you hang around anyway because you're too afraid of what life will be like without them.
The reason why Northern Ireland is financially non viable is precisely because we are part of the UK. It will never be prosperous or successful until it's rejoined with the Republic.
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Thresea's like your drunk aunt Margaret let lose after a Xmas dinner!! Bonkers!
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Let's hope this election brings out all those who didn't turn out at the EU referendum.
With the Labour Party in a mess and the local council elections in the rest of the UK in May it's clear that the Torys have jumped on this opportunity with Labour weakened and will use local council elections as their early exit polls to see what areas they need to hit hard.
In NI it's unsure how things will pan out, without a unionist pact the DUP will have to actually do some work in North and East Belfast to retain their seats and the UUP will need to work twice as hard in Fermanagh & South Tyrone to have a chance of retaining.
South Belfast will be wide open for the SDLP, Alliance, DUP and SF.
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My main concern with Northern Ireland's future within the UK lies with the British Government and whether or not they want to fight the corner for us. If they're just going throw us aside and pretend that we don't exist without caring about the repercussions for that.. Then, i'm afraid for me personally, I have no interest in staying in the United Kingdom.
But I will wait and see. Theresa keeps talking about her precious "United Kingdom" that she believes in.. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and see what she does in these negotiations. I suspect United Kingdom for her means England, Scotland, Wales, without Northern Ireland
One of my friends in Dublin is a very senior Irish civil servant.
He's been doing Anglo-Irish stuff on and off since the period just after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. He's at the level where he'd be in meeting James Brokenshire.
He was saying to me a couple of nights ago that the only ones who care about the North is the government in Dublin.
In his experience London is indifferent, they don't want the hassle of looking after us.
But Dublin cares because if there's trouble in the North, the Republic's international reputation will drop like a stone and that's the end of foreign direct investment.
Maybe not the best of reasons but it's the best reason I can think of for a United Ireland.
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British government realises Brexit is a mistake, official says
Sure, didn't we know, at least some of us did. "An act of great self-harm!" What do you think?
We'll end up with free movement, but no representation at Brussels. Why free movement? It's the way the world is moving, and we need the labour, otherwise our industries and services will die. Travel up to Derry or Belfast from Dublin, be treated in a hospital or a nursing home, be served up food or drink in a hotel and restaurant, and you'll see what I mean. And those British living and working abroad will not thank us for imperiling their futures outside the UK. Nor will Gibralter.
Those who wanted to take "our country back" will
very soon find that it was a vanity project, founded in false sentiment without intelligence and evidence.Add to that the virtual disinterest in the North about Brexit, and also for the UK, the amount of time and energy being expended on this project.
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Don't want to detract from brexit as a whole but potential direct rule for Northern Ireland has been a major topic of discussion from the point the assembly collapsed, it was discussed in the recent talks after the election and has been discussed in the new round of talks. A government still hasn't been formed.
Section 32 of the Northern Ireland act (which implements the Good Friday/St Andrews agreements) says the Secretary of State has to propose a date for a new election if first and deputy first ministers aren't appointed within the timeframe set out in section 16A. That's 7 days after the first scheduled meeting of the assembly, which is in turn to be no more than 8 days after the election results are certified.
Obviously, we're well past this now. Brokenshire is taking advantage of the fact that the legislation doesn't tell him when he has to propose the election, so he's trying to hold off to see if they can eke out an agreement with the Assembly in limbo, and then pretend a new election wasn't called for.
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Thoughts and solidarity with the people killed in a Terror attack on the Metro Train in St Petersburg Russia ..I wish the injured a very speedy recovery.. Russian Lives matter ..I hope Belfast Council open a book of condolence in Solidarity with the people of Russia ...The Western world must stand with the Russia people in this time of terror and not engage in hypocrisy.. My Best wishes to the citizens of St Petersburg..
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There has been much talk of the issue of Brexit and the effect it will have on Gibraltar on the news and in the papers today... Gibraltar brings sadness to many Irish Anti Imperialists as three Irish people were murdered on the Rock of Gibraltar unarmed by a British right wing Imperialist death squad.. One Mairead Farrell is an icon to Feminist and Socialists local and International all three are icons to Anti Imperialist everywhere..Gibraltar does not belong to Britain it is part of Spain not Britain ...The British should hand the island of Gibraltar back to Spain and it should demilitarize all its military bases there and everywhere ...Britain out of Gibraltar.. Britain out of Northern Ireland ..Spain out of the Basque country ..Hand liberty back to all countries under Occupation... End Imperialism everywhere ...
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"She said that if Britain leaves the EU’s single market, her business would lose crucial licencing rights and that an EU subsidiary would be set up in a country that is likely to remain in the EU, in order to be able to provide seamless coverage to customers."
If I were a continental European I would want nothing to do with the UK anymore
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"We have to be very clear about what country we wish to become" - So says Lord Kerr of Kinlochard who drafted Art 50.
What is that country you wish us to become?
That's complicated for me as I'm deeply unhappy about what it will do to regions of the UK including Northern Ireland. It also affects how I feel about my national identity, complicated for me because of my all Ireland family. This whole badly handled business has tipped me and many others from the feeling of being British to feeling Irish and European.
So, if I'm trying to answer Lord Kerr's question, I'm fearful not for myself but for my family and our current generation of young people who do not have insular thinking.
BREXIT / British Politics thread
in Politics and World Events
Posted
No matter what happens in Northern Ireland we will never vote for our own government.
We will always be represented by either a Tory government who do stand here and receive as little amount of votes as a party can get, or by a Labour government who although are far better in my opinion, will be unelected by us.
The fact that the only way we can have a democratic referendum on the unification of Ireland is through one man, unelected by anyone whatsoever in Ireland (SoS) is a disgrace. I understand why however, because at the time of the GFA we needed a way for Unionists, Nationalists and the British and Irish governments to agree, and a way to a united ireland for nationalists but ambiguous enough for unionists to agree sounded necessary then, but is outdated now as there is a clear rise in support for a united ireland and Irish unity parties.
And even if the person I vote for gets in to Westminster will they have any actual say on how **** is run? Even in the debates every country was represented except NI.
Furthermore, take into consideration the fact that a functioning democracy requires a politically literate electorate and a fair and free press.
Western Democracy is the biggest cons in the history of civilisation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rGX91rq5I&t=27s
I feel like it's just a huge stupid popularity contest - no different from the hype of X Factor, or Eurovision, or even Dancing with the Stars..... Brainwashed from birth a lot of the time to believe my team not yours...... just like supporting the local football team.
And you could say, oh well, people should educate themselves more and no the facts and make informed decisions but the system is set up in such a way that the more informed you are, the more powerless you realise you are - there are only 2 choices really in terms of practical control of the country; your MP isn't representing you, they're representing their party ideology that has nothing to do with you. 2 flavours of political ideology....... is nothing, no choice at all.
I think voting on issues no longer has to be through a middle-man MP. In today's world of electronic systems, more issues should not be handled as MP votes in parliaments, but as direct votes by the people themselves. MP are meant to be representing the views of the individuals in their constituencies but often they don't, they are instead told what to vote by the party itself........ We don't need that because today, we can all have our say directly using technology. We don't need to have our individual views filtered through or overridden by pre-determined party ideologies.
For the big issues anyway. This way people do feel more impactful on policies, will probably take more time to understand fully the issues and it would mean that the country would be better served to educate people properly and no just pandering PR talk to "trick" people into thinking this serves them better than that.