SpankyMcFarland

The Republic of Ireland is not totally dependent on any other single country. A no-deal Brexit would be serious for Ireland but so would a return to the old border on the island. Brexiteers just did not think about their land border with the EU before the vote and Boris is still expressing surprise about the complexities involved.

Democracy is a popularity contest. Electing the GG would be a good compromise; the diminishing fraction of hardcore monarchists would keep the old framework and the rest of us could vote for a de facto head of state who would have the credibility to say no to the PM when he or she overstepped themselves.

In practice, constitutional monarchies function very much as parliamentary republics, the major difference being an unelected head of state. The GG is not really appointed by the Queen. She does what she is told. The GG is appointed by the PM, somebody he or she may have to oppose. It’s an obvious conflict of interest. An election for the GG could be held, the result of which could inform the PM and his minions on whom to ‘advise’ the Queen to appoint. Boris promised Angela he’d have a written proposal to the EU within a month. That month is almost up and the EU sources claim they have received nothing in writing yet. If you don’t like the backstop, at least come up with a detailed alternative.

In practice, constitutional monarchies function very much as parliamentary republics, the major difference being an unelected head of state. The GG is not really appointed by the Queen. She does what she is told. The GG is appointed by the PM, somebody he or she may have to oppose. It’s an obvious conflict of interest. An election for the GG could be held, the result of which could inform the PM and his minions on whom to ‘advise’ the Queen to appoint.

BTW in the HoC there are votes of no confidence rather than non-confidence votes. Our prorogation crisis with Harper showed yet again why the GG should be an elected position rather than being effectively chosen by the PM.

Given that the Brexit vote was 52-48, that’s a vote for Brexit but not a no-deal Brexit. The vast majority of that Remain vote would want at most a soft Brexit and presumably some of Leave too, putting soft Brexit easily over the 50 mark.

I can’t agree that Brexit would be a return to either the EEC or Thatcher’s vision for the future. The customs union was an essential EEC feature and the single market was pioneered by Thatcher herself. Brexiteers want to leave both. BTW for the eurosceptic crowd, UKIP has been eclipsed by the Brexit Party.

That was why I put the EU in italics. Thatcher’s main point there was not about the EEC per se but the effect referendums could have on the constitutional order of Britain, a representative democracy.

Well then, let’s be more honest about our interests. If we want compliant dictators in control in the ME for the foreseeable future come out and say it: our murderers are preferable to their mullahs.

Here are some of Margaret Thatcher’s thoughts on a previous ‘EU’ referendum:

Pence went to Ireland, stayed in Trump’s golf club for no good reason at all and insulted the whole country: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/05/mike-pence-ireland-shat-on-the-carpet

Si Kenen registered as a foreign agent before he founded and later incorporated AIPAC. We have either to assume he carried on in that role or suppose, more implausibly, that he changed tack. Here is a quote from his wiki bio:

One can’t easily go from one end to the other by train in Canada as the railway was abandoned in Newfoundland many decades ago and trains on the mainland are slow for the most part. Even driving from SJ to Victoria is weird; each province seems to arbitrarily name a road as their bit of the Trans-Canada Highway and we pretend we have a national motorway. It’s not a proper unitary system like the US interstate. The TCH should be entirely under federal control.

I would support targeted tariffs of that sort.

Ah now, I’m a free trader. Tariffs are a blunt instrument.