Purely out of interest DalesTykes - what is your opinion of the story breaking today that the NFU is pushing the UK government to legalize the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that are banned in the EU due to their damaging effect on wildlife? (I've seen this from 2-3 different sources today)
It's the best kept secret in the public domain.....lol Noted for it whilst mayor of London ....monday to friday....he doesnt work weekends.....might I add .....
I am massively pro Europe, a bee keeper and environmental scientist. But Europe got this one wrong. The science says neonics are not as bad as the alternatives that have replaced them. How can you justify banning them on non-flowering crops to protect pollinators. It makes no sense.
Had a wonderful week trying to manage the chaos at our ports. This isn't even the start of it. Not seen any unicorns in the containers searched by the way.
57 trade deals done by the UK this calendar year, It's not rocket science who is trying to punish who before leaving. Why is it the people who voted remain having tantrums? Where's my hard hat?
I’d go by what the science says, and I don’t know the science, so my ‘opinion’ would be irrelevant. I have met Monbiot and although I think he’s generally ‘one of us’ and I find him hugely entertaining, inspiring even, he can be a bit careless presenting his opinion as fact. I once asked him why he was so aggressive and confrontational in his approach, and didn’t he think if he adopted a more conciliatory approach, he might actually achieve more and actually get things done. His answer was enlightening. “I don’t see my role as being a conciliator. My role is to throw a grenade into a crowded room and create the space for others to fill the vacuum and hopefully come up with a better approach.” Well, it’s a style!
If you'd just voted remain it would make everything so much easier. You keep making me think, and I'm way too old and way too alcoholic to do any of that thinking nonsense. Could you just please stop having political beliefs different to my own, while at the same time being a decent person. It would do me a massive favour as I'm not coping very well with it at all.
Ha ha. That's very kind. Looking at a range of threads over the years i suspect our political beliefs may be more aligned than you suggest. It's just on Brexit where there's a difference - not necessarily of view - but approach - to achieving what i think most of my fellow left learning , muesli eating, sandal wearing, bearded Guardianistas want. A descent society where people are well treated, there is mutual respect for each other and a recognition that the 'strongest' have a moral duty to help others who have been less lucky/fortunate. Believe me i absolutely recognize that voting to leave put me with some pretty unpleasant characters, but I outlined my reasons earlier in this thread so I won't go over old ground again. Slainte.
27 trade deals with countries who desperately wanted access to our market to sell us stuff but none with anybody who we need desperately to allow us access to their markets because the bulk of our exports go there. Its a **** up on a monumental scale for the working and middle classes if this country and a licence to print money for Boris and his disaster capitalist chums. Those who swallowed the LIES that spewed out of the mouths of the brexit bunch you know the ones like we hold all the cards over the EU, it will be the easiest trade deal ever, I have an oven ready deal here ready to go and of course the infamous £350 million a week for the NHS have a lot to answer for. Anybody with half a brain cell should have seen what the EU would require for us to retain unfettered access to the single market like we have now sadly brain cells are in short supply in Johnsons cabinet. The EU aren't playing hard ball or being obstructive they are simply trying to make sure their market retains its integrity and they don't trust Johnson and why the hell should they he is serial liar and about as trustworthy as a fox in a chicken coup. Brexit is the biggest piece of self harm this country as ever inflicted on itself.
The thing that depresses me the most, is that person who has been the most consistent in Brexit debates on this BBS, the person who has articulated their point of view better than anyone else, without ever having recourse to belittle the opinion of others, is the person whose stance is diametrically opposite to my own, and, to rub salt in those wounds, has a much greater knowledge and understanding of the situation than I do. I still think you're wrong, but having read what you've written I'm more inclined to believe it's the way it has been sold that is the problem, rather than the ideology. Don't get me wrong, I'm a long way from accepting it, but I'm much closer to accepting that the alternative point of view to my own isn't necessarily based on right wing garbage, it may well be a considered opinion. And an opinion that has been considered more than my own. But I'm still going to vote left, and left is still to me, by a long way, remain.
Boris means business. The EU are obsessed with still having as much access as they already have in our waters.
They're not, not at all. The spin doctors have made it a thing so it looks like we're defending ourselves against tyranny. It's the one tiny issue in this entire **** shower that they can spin into a reason why Brexit might have been a good idea.
Means business? So a tiny vessel strays into UK waters. The Navy make them aware, they don't move. What do they do next? Do they ram them? Do they fire a warning shot and cause an international incident? Do they just say '' Boris means business, so let's sink em because that's what folk voted for. Take back control, drown a few fishermen, we'll have our shell fish and eat it (well we won't cos we're more into cod, but it's our shellfish).
Not much use being able to catch the fish when you've just told your biggest market for those fish to do one though is it. What a great idea to wreck all the economy to ensure 0.01 % of it can catch fish that because we are protecting that 0.01% has lost its biggest market place. But let's put a picture of a patrol boat on the front pages of the right wing rags and pretend we're going to sink some French and Spanish fishing boats so the brexit bunch can have a w@nk over their kippers at breakfast and shout down the rest off the population who can see how utterly Moronic we've been
How dare you post anything positive about brexit? God knows how we coped all those hundreds of years before the EU.