in my opinion I see nothing wrong with kicking out foreign born murderers/rapists/drug dealers/terrorists etc etc etc over 8000 deported last year most of them white and possibly some had blonde hair never heard lammy then do you think they should be allowed to stay should people fleeing war torn france be allowed to stay or should they be sent back on the next ferry
Yeah, he's highly rated. Unlike Javid who was the poor boy made good, Sunak is Winchester and Oxford so different background. I'm sorry to see Javid go and imagine he'll go into business now so there may be a by election
Leo Varadkar has paid the price for banging on about Brexit Brendan O'Neill please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Brendan O'Neill 12 February 2020 7:03 AM There has been a revolt in Ireland. Not a huge one. It isn’t a Brexit-sized rebellion. It isn’t an all-out populist protest against the establishment of the kind we have seen in the US and various European countries in recent years. But still, the result of Saturday’s general election is a brilliant blow against the Irish establishment and its obsessively pro-EU, anti-Brexit leanings. People are talking up the election result as a humiliation for Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar. It certainly is that. Varadkar’s attempt to make the election about Brexit — and about his apparently brave efforts to frustrate Brexit — fell spectacularly flat. But Varadkar isn’t the only one who failed to make Brexitphobia the organising principle of Irish political life. Vast swathes of the Dublin elite were likewise obsessed with Brexit. And now all of them have been exposed as being utterly out of touch with ordinary Irish people. The results are striking. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the parties that sprung from the Irish Civil War of the 1920s and which dominated Irish politics for decades, are in serious decline. Between them, these parties once commanded more than 80 per cent of the Irish vote. In Saturday’s election, they got around 43 per cent of the vote. Ireland is emerging from the shadow of the Civil War and that’s no bad thing. Fine Gael’s failures are particularly striking given that Varadkar had become a globally talked-about, much-cheered national leader over the past couple of years. In the 2011 general election, Fine Gael (led by Enda Kenny) won 76 seats in the Dail. In the 2016 election (still led by Kenny) it got 50 seats. This time around, led by the Brussels-feted figure of Leo Varadkar, it got 35 seats. Oh dear. Understandably, many people are focusing on the Sinn Fein surge. Sinn Fein won 37 seats in the Dail, coming a very close second to Fianna Fail. That a party like Sinn Fein should push Fine Gael into third place is indeed extraordinary. But the question is why Sinn Fein was able to do this. Both the right-wingers who are fretting that the vote for Sinn Fein represents a return to hardcore republicanism and the leftists excitedly talking up Sinn Fein as a radical voice in 21st century Ireland are missing the key dynamic here. Sinn Fein did well because, unlike the technocratic, globally-inclined Dublin elites, it focused mostly on national and local issues, on things people are actually concerned about. Housing, health, jobs. Fine Gael’s catastrophic failure in this election is a searing indictment of the Varadkar approach to politics. Over the past couple of years, Varadkar allowed himself to become a patsy of the EU. He turned Ireland into little more than a battering ram against Brexit. With no sense of shame, he reduced himself to a pliant tool of the EU establishment, continually doing its bidding against Brexit by obsessing over (and exaggerating) the impact Brexit would have on the border in Ireland and on economic life in Ireland. For this, he was celebrated in Brussels and Paris. He was cheered by European technocrats. He became a hero of Remainers in the UK. He was applauded by establishment lackeys at the Irish Times. And he got so carried away with being fawned over by foreign bureaucrats and pro-EU luvvies that he forgot about, or simply ignored, his own people and the issues they consider to be important. Sure, he got pats on the back from powerful people in Paris and Berlin, but what about working people in Galway or Cork? Well, now we know what they think of Varadkar’s creepy love-ins with Eurocrats and his obsessive focus on the evils of Brexit — not much. Here is the most staggering statistic from the Irish election: just one per cent of voters said Brexit was a deciding factor in how they voted. According to an exit poll by Ipsos/MRBI, voters were far more driven by concerns about healthcare (32 per cent), housing (26 per cent), and pension issues (eight per cent). So there was the Taoiseach making speeches and writing articles for newspapers across Europe about the scourge of Brexit, while the people of Ireland were thinking about more pressing national issues. You couldn’t ask for a better snapshot of the chasm-sized moral and political divide that now separates the technocratic establishment from everyday voters. But it wasn’t only Varadkar who constantly and madly banged the Brexit-loathing drum. Dinner-party circles in Dublin talked about little else. From Fintan O’Toole’s anti-Brexit ramblings to every political talk show on RTE, Ireland’s great and good droned on endlessly about the horribleness of Brexit and the wonderfulness of the EU. Every time I’ve been on the Irish media over the past year I’ve been up against three or four people insisting Brexit is the worst disaster to befall Ireland since colonisation. It was nuts. And we now know that ordinary Irish people did not share this feverish loathing of Britain’s exit from the EU. The blinkered, elitist and often quite sneering worldview of virtually the entire Dublin chattering class has been wonderfully exposed by this election. Varadkar made himself a globetrotting spokesman for Brexitphobia, and the Irish people just weren’t interested. There’s a lesson in this for political elites across Europe: quit your anti-democratic sucking-up to Brussels and listen to your own people for a change.
Spot on about Varadkar. Of course I'll now get accused of criticising him because I support the old British Empire, just like a few days ago on here. This of course was 'liked' by the usual suspects. Chips on shoulders unfortunately allow some to have their view clouded by bringing up the Colonial days of the past at every opportunity. For the record I think that a united Ireland would ultimately be a very good thing and that the island should never have been divided. However, I'm still allowed to criticise both Ireland and Varadkar without being accused of Emperialism. Should have replied when this first happened, but chose to bite my tongue. Bollocks to that.
Politicians and the political 'elite' out of touch with the 'common people'? Perish the thought. They'll be blaming the 'thick' voters next...
might even be housing for the veterens next please log in to view this image Dehenna Davison MP @DehennaDavison The #VeteransRailcard is an excellent policy that honours those who have bravely fought for our country. Available from Armistice Day 2020, it will give a third off the rail fares for veterans & their families. We are making the UK the best place to be a veteran in the world. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Kerching! Theresa May has trousered another £96,000 for a speech to Pricewaterhouse Coopers... takes her post-PM earnings to half a million quid
Guy Verhofstadt @guyverhofstadt "It is an open question whether any sort of international rule of law would survive." Agree with @martinwolf_ . Trump's re-election would embolden his destructive behaviour. The EU must build an alliance of countries willing to defend liberal democracy.
please log in to view this image Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn If there was a case of a young white boy with blonde hair, who later dabbled in class A drugs and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist, would they deport that boy? Or is it one rule for young black boys born in the Caribbean, and another for white boys born in the US? please log in to view this image Mr Higgs-Boson @higgyboson1 Hey @jeremycorbyn In 2007 Labour passed a law, (which you and David Lammy voted for), to ensure all foreign criminals were deported after serving a 12 month sentence or longer. There was no amendment on the last page stating "Unless they're from Jamaica". I hope this helps.
I think you called this thread 'a left wing talking shop', Col. You really can't be paying attention.
in fairness Col, the author of that article is an out an out Brexiteer who can not accept that the leader of the land of his fore fathers decided to stand up for the interests of his country. Varadkar has always said if the UK wish to leave, go right ahead but under no circumstances will peace on this island be jeopardised. and the Good Friday Agreement must be respected. The PSNI have stated that the biggest obstacle to maintaining peace is further political division on the island - ie. Brexit. Particularly as 56 per cent of people in NI voted against Brexit. The exit agreement sees NI remain in the customs union and no hard border. There will be a border down the Irish sea and we will continue to have a Common Travel Area between both countries which means people can still work and live in both countries. That will help with maintaining peace so Varadkar would claim that he achieved what he set out to achieve. The author is attributing Varadkar's defeat in the election to his stance on Brexit in a very gloating manner to justify his own political opinions. 1% of people said they considered Brexit the most important issue in our election and housing and health were the catalyst for Varadkar's defeat. Sinn Fein got almost 25 per cent of first preferences votes. From a UK and Brexit point of view, that is much more worrying going forward than what Varadkar said or didn't say during Brexit. What the author didn't say in the article is that Varadkar was ridiculed in the right wing media over there. Over here most people felt he handled Brexit very well. I am sure a reverse poll in the media here would show Boris Johnsen similarly ridiculed particularly after his chancellor resigned today. As regards a United Ireland, my own personal opinion is that it's not that far off. The demographics in NI are changing quickly. It is legislated for in the GFA as and when it is felt a majority might want it. EDIT - The new NI secretary saying there will be no border down the Irish sea. Not sure where that leaves us all.
****ing hell it's a hard life being a white British male the hardships I go through on a daily basis . Interesting fact only in the last 20 odd years has the UK fully paid back a loan taken out at the end of the slave trade, in the good old days of the empire, remember where wealth was obtained in part by invading countries (all but 22 Countries have been invaded by Britain) and the good ol' slave trade. Oh by the way the loan wasn't taken out to pay reparations to the slaves and the families of the slaves, it was paid to the slave owners for giving up their slaves, it's really not pretty how Britain became such a wealthy Nation which has provided opportunity to remain so over the years, but yea poor ol whitey