Off Topic The Politics Thread

I don't know mate

 

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-40258154.html

This is beyond mad, whilst still not acceptable it’s becoming the norm

 

At times like this you remember what Chelsea fans are like and why you can't stand them. I've no doubt that it's a small number and not condoned by the club but the problem will never go away or the Club's reputation as a place whey can meet to propagate their racist bullshit.

 

No offence but racists are everywhere.

Even sir less was copping racist abuse from your own fans and hes a legend
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.st...dinand-interview-qpr-racism-a4355396.html?amp

 

Kicking off in Northern Ireland. Nobody could have predicted the great Brexit deal’s impact there.


Also a happy Easter to all.

 

Politicians on this side of the Irish sea warned that Brexit will affect the peace process. They were accused of exaggeration.

Who's exaggerating now?

 

Eggsaggerating given the day, please.

 

It was sparked by a no-prosecution decision for Covid breaches at an IRA funeral

Happy Easter

 

Eggscellent. Ring the ‘nothing to do with Breggsit’ bell.

 

No prosecutions at large Loyalist gatherings either.

 

Ok, I'm not saying the reaction was necessarily reasonable. Just that, according to Sky, it sparked stuff off. There clearly is tension in the loyalist community over Brexit. I would say it is in the EU's interests, as well as everyone else's, to play things sensitively over the customs border.

After the triggering of Article 16, and the subsequent U turn, however, I'm not convinced the bureaucrats in Brussels fully understand what the consequences could be otherwise.

 

If the terrorist rioters are that concerned about people breaking covid restrictions, maybe they would be so kind to present themselves to their local police station for breach of the regulations as they rioted, as soon as they can. Whilst they are there, they may also account for the injuries received by the police officers as a result of their rioting and the damage caused to property.

The reason there is tension over Brexit is due to the fact that people who want Brexit in N.I. are in a minority and the DUP don't like to be the minority. There is an international agreement signed by the UK and the EU27 which states there would be a NI protocol with a border in the Irish sea so that controls can be in place to protect the integrity of the single market. Boris Johnston agreed that with the EU. He should be explaining to all politicians in NI that the protocol has to be respected and he should insist that the likes of Arlene Foster++ explain the reasons for the protocol to their electorate. She is encouraging the tension by insisting that something which is part of a signed international agreement be disbanded because she doesn't like elements of it. She should spend more time trying to make the Protocol work as there are huge potential benefits to NI to be part of the single market as well as part of the UK.

I'm not too sure the Bureaucrats in London (like Lord Frost - an unelected appointee to the house of Lords and member of the cabinet as was Dominic Cummings before him) fully understand what they have signed up to? The Irish Government will ensure the sensitivities of N.I. will be considered as they have always done. That's why they warned Brexit would be extremely bad in terms of maintaining the hard won peace, as we have clearly seen this week. It is time for the British government to sit down with Arlene foster and explain to her why there is a protocol in place and SHE should insist the rioting stops and doesn't escalate.

 

Rioters are criminals which ever side of the divide they come from. I hope they're tracked down and prosecuted.

As to the Irish Sea border, I would make a general observation that there is still a huge amount of resentment and ill-will in the EU towards the UK for voting for Brexit. There are numerous incidents where officials in the Northern member coastal states like France and the Netherlands are using customs bureaucracy to frustrate UK exports, particularly of perishable goods like seafood. If the EU take that same bad faith approach in Northern Ireland (and I believe they are stupid enough to do so) they may well come unstuck. All sides need to come together to make the NI work for the benefit of all.

 

I think the bad will started when the UK government tried to introduce legislation to override the withdrawl agreement. That was the first I heard of there being mistrust.

Agreed, on all sides need to come together to make things work more smoothly. Exports should not be getting delayed at any port.

 

Totally agree Goldie. The EU seem to have forgotten the Trusted Trader scheme or forgotten how to use it. Silly games they are playing because they are terrified of a successful Brexit. They really should be taking a good look at themselves because they are acting like muppets of late.

 

Probably shouldn’t have spent four years pandering to xenophobic morons and choosing a hard Brexit over minimising the impact on the economy if being treated as a third country is that big a deal.

 

Its happening week in, week out it’s not just Chelsea as Bob pointed out we’ve had it, and we’re hardly alone

 

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Opinion
Boris Johnson is a man of principles. We should thank Jennifer Arcuri for exposing them
Catherine Bennett

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Are we so inured to the PM’s ways that we now just shrug at claims of grave unethical conduct?
Sun 4 Apr 2021 03.30 EDT

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‘I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the Earl of Craven.” If Jennifer Arcuri’s new, extended account of her sexual adventures can’t compete for ambition or polish with the memoirs of Harriette Wilson, which caused a sensation in 1825, her recollections deserved better than to be ignored by the BBC, snubbed by the prime minister’s media supporters and only grudgingly appreciated by his critics. Was there really no political substance in this generous new evidence of behaviour so sleazy, reckless and ethically vacuous?

Maybe, as some have wearily suggested, only the very unsophisticated will still recoil from scenes like the one – detailed by Arcuri – that preceded Boris Johnson’s appearance between his wife and Princess Anne at an Olympics ceremony. “I couldn’t even find his sock.” These sort of things probably happen at the BBC the whole time. Same – yawn – with the panting mayoral requests (“Photo x”) when the lovers were apart. Given his long-advertised affectations, it’s admittedly no surprise the mayor recited Shakespeare with the much younger literature fan he was about to shag on the sofa, minutes before his wife arrived home. Though Macbeth is an unexpected choice. Which bit was it? “‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly’ – keep up Jennifer old girl, she’s due back any minute.”

But even if long exposure to Johnson has desensitised many to these horrors, the Sunday Mirror’s story made it unprecedentedly clear how unsparingly the prime minister applied himself, for years, to the pursuit of extramarital sex. When you appreciate, like this, the gruelling routine – from isolating the next target and furtively getting her number, finding meeting places, dodging security staff, downing the meals, reciting sonnet 29 (again), then dealing with the pregnancies, the discoveries, denials, domestic explosions, all of it, over and over, it’s not going to leave much time, is it, what with the Telegraph columns to knock off, plus a book, maybe even a child or six playing up? Factor in demanding histrionics of the kind Johnson reportedly enjoyed during the (denied) four-year affair with Petronella Wyatt and we’ve probably had it the wrong way round about his priorities. He’s not a top politician in thrall to priapism, but the reverse: a pound-shop libertine for whom public life is rewarding chiefly for its sexual opportunities, its wife-placating alibis and that most enticing of baits, high status.

After one dinner at an Italian place long overdue a blue plaque – “Boris Johnson, the ‘Conduit Street Casanova’, groped here 2005-2012” – he “screamed” for a kiss in the street: “This is my city, I don’t care.” As mayor, and then in government office, Johnson could play at being mad, bad and dangerous to know. Out of office, he’d be, what? Crispin Odey?

Johnson does have case to answer over Jennifer Arcuri, says chair of standards panel
Other than divorce, the remaining threat to Johnson’s arrangements came, given an endlessly indulgent press, from the late Lord Nolan. In 1994, Nolan was tasked by John Major with rescuing politics from Tory sleaze. “We seek to restore respect for the ethical values inherent in the idea of public service,” Nolan wrote of the resulting Seven Principles: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership. Enforcement was another question. “Formal procedures have a role to play,” Nolan said, “but in the end it is individuals’ consciences that matter.” By the time George Osborne and David Cameron hastened to enrich themselves, this idea was already comical. We are now left with, on the one hand, Nolan’s faded sampler; on the other, Johnson’s expensively wallpapered, ever-expanding development of luxury Augean stables.

That Johnson is aware of Nolan is evident from a characteristically insulting answer to a question in 2009, after his questionable gift of a coveted London arts job to a devoted hack. “I support the Nolan principles. I support the Nolan sisters! I support Sidney Nolan! I do indeed.”

Now Johnson has Allegra Stratton to embody his contempt for accountability. After the Sunday Mirror revelations revived questions about preferential treatment and £120,000 of public funds, she said: “He follows the Nolan principles when conducting himself in public life.” Anyone familiar with the incoming Johnson principles of public life appreciated that, under revised principle 6, fabrication, Stratton was only doing her job. With his tribute to principle 1, greed, Johnson recently hinted at the existence of a parallel Johnsonian code, but it has taken Arcuri, with additional input from Cameron, the PM turned lobbyist, to bring home the thoroughness of the rewrite.

Johnson principle 1: Greed
(As above, replaces Nolan’s selflessness.) Holders of public office should take decisions solely in their own interest or that of their friends/families.

2. Shamelessness
(Replaces integrity.) Holders of public office should accept gifts from generous individuals and organisations likely to expect favours in return.

3. Self-interest
(Previously objectivity.) When making appointments, awarding contracts, etc, holders of public office should not allow merit to affect choices made exclusively to benefit themselves, their supporters, family or friends.

4. Unaccountability
(Replaces accountability.) Holders of public office must not submit to scrutiny of their actions.

5. Concealment
(Formerly openness.) Holders of public office have a duty to be as opaque as possible about their actions.

6. Fabrication
(Replaces honesty.) Holders of public office are expected to lie freely about any private interests relating to their public duties.

7. Entitlement
(Previously leadership.) Holders of public office should demonstrate by example their support for these principles, which apply to all aspects of self-enrichment.

Does this go far enough? If there are already glaring omissions from the Johnson principles of public life, it’s because Nolan never mentioned their opposites. Even in the previous age of sleaze, qualities such as diligence, courtesy and respect for human life were among those he quaintly took for granted in our public servants.

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Spurs player got some racist abuse after yesterday’s game. Something needs to be done now!!! The abuse will get less and less coverage and become expected and the norm. Personally I hope more and more follow Henry’s example and come off the platforms. If famous people come off they’ll lose at least some of the revenue.

In Spain it happened on the pitch!! ****s sake.

 

Was watching sky sports news last night, Sanchez of spurs, Rooney at Rangers and the Valencia player all getting racist abuse. Valencia walked off the pitch only to be threatened with sanctions unless they returned. In fairness to their player, he encouraged them to return to the field. The first 2 cases were over social media. Now I'm no computer expert but surely these people can be found, named and then shamed in public of being racist. Or alternatively heavily fine the media platforms until they decide to pull their fingers out!