Politics POLL: Brexit Withdrawal Agreement

[Gwadien]

It isnt a global power.

We are just about a global power..china isnt a global power.

China isn't a global power but they spend a billion dollars a year on foreign investments?

lol.

I mean.

I just can't.

*dead*

You actually are insanely deluded if you think that China has less clout than the UK does.

When we handed Hong Kong over to the Chinese, that was the point where we accepted that they were a greater power than us.

 

[Yoni]

It isnt a global power.

We are just about a global power..china isnt a global power.

This had me spitting out my coffee - delusional is an understatement - @Job you just went full retard...

 

[Gwadien]

@Job does that mean that you believe if that the UK and China had a negotiation for a trade deal, you believe that the UK holds the better cards?

 

[DaGaffer]

It isnt a global power.

We are just about a global power..china isnt a global power.

Go to Africa, or latin America, or central Asia, and use your eyes, then tell me China isn't a global power.

 

[Gwadien]

How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port

Chinese paid for ports;

They're hoping to do what they did with Sri Lanka, can't pay the debt? OK, we'll have it then!

 

[Gwadien]

No-deal Brexit 'would be a failure' - Johnson

The actual fuck, lol.

 

[caLLous]

On the one hand he wants a deal, on the other... Brexit negotiating team shrinks to only four staff

The Europe unit which had led negotiations for a Brexit deal with Brussels has been disbanded by Boris Johnson.

The civil servants who worked in the Cabinet Office under Olly Robbins, Theresa May’s chief Brexit negotiator, are all thought to have been redeployed to other government departments.

The Times also understands that Mr Robbins, who was moved from his job by Mr Johnson, will announce this week that he is leaving the civil service.

He has been on gardening leave since July after handing over to David Frost, a former political adviser to Mr Johnson who is now his Europe adviser.

A Whitehall source said that Mr Frost had a core team of only four political and civil service advisers working directly for him in Downing Street.

At the height of negotiations over the original withdrawal agreement there were more than 50 civil servants working in the Europe unit under Mr Robbins with additional support being provided by other government departments as well as UK officials in Brussels.

An insider said that the move would lead to a loss of “institutional memory” that would put Mr Frost at a significant disadvantage in future negotiations.

“If Johnson is serious about getting a deal this is madness,” they said. “Even if you want to renegotiate what’s gone before you still need to understand the context of what was agreed then.”

A Cabinet Office source said that Downing Street had taken the decision not to have a separate Europe unit working with Mr Frost to help to avoid “complexity and duplication”.

Instead they said that Mr Frost would draw on “normal structures within the Department for Exiting the EU and the Cabinet Office”.

“This means that the same people are working to both the prime minister, the prime minister’s sherpa and the Brexit secretary. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a ‘team’ of people working on negotiations — there is, it is senior Brexit department officials and a wider set of people in relevant departments.”

However, another insider said that there was no team at all in the Cabinet Office working on a potential deal and that the Europe Unit’s offices had been converted into meeting rooms.

It is also thought that after meetings in Brussels Mr Frost has told the prime minister that there is no hope of agreeing a new deal on the Irish backstop while uncertainty in parliament continues.

In a one-page memo to Mr Johnson and Dominic Cummings, his chief adviser, Mr Frost wrote that until there was clarity on the domestic front the EU would not offer a renewed deal.

“The EU are not under pressure to agree alternative arrangements until they know the process will not be taken over by parliament,” he wrote. “Until that they will listen to us but avoid committing. Talks will only become serious when it’s a choice between deal or no deal.”

Mr Frost is due back in Brussels next week to continue talks on a planned alternative to the backstop based on an all-Ireland food standards zone. Talks will focus on “governance” and the UK will seek to discuss “preliminary ideas on how any all-island solutions could involve the consent of all parties and institutions with an interest”.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “David Frost is accompanied to Brussels by a team of civil servants with relevant Brexit, trade and legal expertise.

“They will be supported by the UK Rep team already based in Brussels. The team intend to run through a range of issues with Taskforce 50, including the backstop.”

Some in Whitehall are not sorry to see the back of the Downing Street Europe unit, which had gained a reputation for secrecy and failing to share information with other government departments.

In particular UK Representation, the team of British diplomats who are based in Brussels and represent the UK in the EU, felt on occasions that they were being kept out of the loop in negotiations with Taskforce 50, led by Michel Barnier, who is responsible for negotiating Brexit on behalf of the European Commission.

 

[Job]

And yet still, China is a regional power.

As usual you have the assumptions on your heads about Britains world position..the EU and just about everything.

 

[dysfunction]

And yet still, China is a regional power.

As usual you have the assumptions on your heads about Britains world position..the EU and just about everything.

And you are living in ignorance

 

[Yoni]

No no I have come to the conclusion he is absolutely mentally challenged, probably from inbreeding

 

[DaGaffer]

And yet still, China is a regional power.

As usual you have the assumptions on your heads about Britains world position..the EU and just about everything.

No I have experience and don’t get my “facts” from the Daily Express or Reddit. Britain leads China in two areas; ability to project military power (a highly arbitrary measure that fails to account for the UK’s complete inability to sustain operations despite two shiny new aircraft carriers; these rankings are basically “hardware porn” for military fanboys), and foreign direct investment in leading economies (not overall FDI, but Britain has more invested in the US and EU than China; they’re on par in Africa and China has more FDI everywhere else and a bigger overall investment pool than the UK).

As for “soft power”; since I can show rankings that put the UK 1st, 6th, 2nd and 4th, I’ll take the whole idea with a pinch of salt.

Most importantly; by every material measure the UK is dropping in global importance and China is rising.

 

[Yoni]

No-deal Brexit 'would be a failure' - Johnson

The actual fuck, lol.

You actually missed the beauty of Varadkar’s speech - it was superb and completely outclassed Boz

 

[Gwadien]

You actually missed the beauty of Varadkar’s speech - it was superb and completely outclassed Boz

The second vid in the link? Only 33 secs though.

 

[Wij]

View: https://twitter.com/chunkymark/status/1171105644633571334

 

[Yoni]

The second vid in the link? Only 33 secs though.

View: https://youtu.be/0ifMUANGGTg

 

[DaGaffer]

View: https://twitter.com/chunkymark/status/1171105644633571334

You surely can't be surprised by that? And let's be honest here, 90% of the British population give zero shits about NI, whether they're leavers or remainers.

 

[Scouse]

90% of the British population give zero shits about their neighbours, or some members of their own family that they don't like, so expecting them to give a shit about places they don't live that are hundreds of miles away from their homes is probably asking a bit much.

In the same way, nobody from NI really gives a shit about the UK either.

Not really adding much here apart from stating the bleeding obvious

 

[Ormorof]

Actually for a very vocal group they care very much about the UK

 

[Gwadien]

View: https://youtu.be/0ifMUANGGTg

All I did during that video is look at Boris saying to myself 'pls wake up, he can't be prime minister, shirley.'

 

[Yoni]

You didn’t get the Hercules dig then?

 

[Wij]

View: https://twitter.com/PhilipHammondUK/status/1170633949879635968

 

[Job]

No I have experience and don’t get my “facts” from the Daily Express or Reddit. Britain leads China in two areas; ability to project military power (a highly arbitrary measure that fails to account for the UK’s complete inability to sustain operations despite two shiny new aircraft carriers; these rankings are basically “hardware porn” for military fanboys), and foreign direct investment in leading economies (not overall FDI, but Britain has more invested in the US and EU than China; they’re on par in Africa and China has more FDI everywhere else and a bigger overall investment pool than the UK).

As for “soft power”; since I can show rankings that put the UK 1st, 6th, 2nd and 4th, I’ll take the whole idea with a pinch of salt.

Most importantly; by every material measure the UK is dropping in global importance and China is rising.

So..you finally agree.

Yes things will change, but China has very little military leverage outside of its region.
Thats why its a regional power.

 

[Talivar]

Both France and China have more Nukes than UK so i wouldnt want to fight either!

 

[DaGaffer]

So..you finally agree.

Yes things will change, but China has very little military leverage outside of its region.
Thats why its a regional power.

Regional military power. Which has no bearing on anything being discussed here.

 

[Job]

It was exactly what was being discussed

 

[Gwadien]

It was exactly what was being discussed

You're still not answering the fucking question though.


What is the relevance of military strength in regards to Brexit?

 

[caLLous]

 

[caLLous]

 

[Scouse]

Dolphin's a mammal

 

[Wij]

Dolphin's a mammal

I think that was intentional.