Julian Popov@julianpopov is an ex Bulgarian Environment Minister. His tweet below I thought worthy of a wider audience! The year is 2192. The British Prime Minister visits Brussels to ask for an extension of the Brexit deadline. No one remembers where this tradition originated, but every year it attracts many tourists from all over the… Read more
Category:
Brexit
About the decision, background and process of the UK leaving the European Union.
Government without principle
Amid all the surreal fantasy that Brexit has given us, the fact that the government can maintain that the people just want to ‘get it done’ at the same moment that there about a million people outside the Parliamentary gates asking for a second referendum ranks as some of the most brazen lying of the… Read more
Fascism and how to avoid it
This Channel Four interview with Professor Timothy Sneider of Yale University is so good I provide no comment, but suggest simply that is well worth its ten minute viewing time…. Read more
Something else we’re discovering…
The British on average use two and a half times as much toilet roll as most people in Europe. A useless fact you may think, but an interesting one when according to the Evening Standard a no-deal Brexit would lead to toilet paper shortages. Of course, whilst toilet roll may be manufactured in the UK,… Read more
NI Politics comes to England but is it a Trick or a Treat?
Introduction Growing up in Dublin, Halloween (Oíche Shamhna – the night before Samhain 1st Nov.) was a significant event, particularly for children. Dressing up in ghoulish costumes, making turnip lanterns, playing particular games, going around neighbour’s houses asking “help the Halloween party” was all part of the fun. Fireworks, in particular, “bangers” were set off…. Read more
Neoliberal lies are certainly present in Brexit too
This was the FT’s front page yesterday (double click to enlarge): I’ll spare comment on Mr Putin’s Siberian holiday… in favour of the second article – an estimate by HMRC that outside the EU it would cost British business 15 billion pounds to fill in time-consuming and inconvenient customs declarations – based on the 215m… Read more
The PM himself surrenders
This is in an encouraging blog from David Allen Green, the ‘intermittent’ FT legal correspondent. The article on yesterday’s Scottish court judgement is well worth reading – even though I’m rather unsure if he – or I – should ever refer to the act as the surrender act… Nevertheless, the conclusion is pretty devastating: British… Read more
Sources, Dead Cats and Probable Outcomes
Introduction It has been a rather frantic week and much of the attention has been on the new proposal to replace the backstop, to much fanfare and apparent optimism in 10 Downing St. It seems the DUP and some of the ERG may be on side. It is possibly it might actually pass in Parliament… Read more
Organising money and society
There are three (not strictly related) TED talks that are worth highlighting; one by the well-travelled journalist, Johann Hari, another by the social psychologist, Paul Piff and the third by the billionaire, Nick Hanauer. All, I think, are well worth watching and only about 15 minutes each. All I’d suggest, show that we have a… Read more
A technological solution…
News reporter Richard Chambers has tweeted this picture of the steel and concrete security structures at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester: . Quite reasonably, he suggests that there must have been technological solutions that would have prevented the use of this infrastructure. I hope he or his ilk manages to ask the question… Read more