Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Razgovory]

Indifference to NATO, support for leftist tugs and terrorists, what's not to like?

Support for terrorists and leftist thugs?

Clearly he said "tugs".  Those little ships that pull around bigger ships.  A very working class type of boat.

[Valmy]

Clearly he said "tugs".  Those little ships that pull around bigger ships.  A very working class type of boat.

They refuse to tug ships in a right-going direction.

[Tamas]

Tyr you do realise that Brexit can totally be blamed on Corbyn, right?

It won with a slim majority and he did exactly fuckall to mobilise the Remain-leaning parts of Labour. In fact his "campaigning" was so visibly devoid of any sparkle of conviction that it really worked as pro-Leave campaigning.

It will be remembered as a historical tragedy that the jackass gamblers in the Tory party were running amok when Labour had a communist in charge.

[Josquius]

Tyr you do realise that Brexit can totally be blamed on Corbyn, right?

It won with a slim majority and he did exactly fuckall to mobilise the Remain-leaning parts of Labour. In fact his "campaigning" was so visibly devoid of any sparkle of conviction that it really worked as pro-Leave campaigning.

It will be remembered as a historical tragedy that the jackass gamblers in the Tory party were running amok when Labour had a communist in charge.

Yep.
I'm far from Corbyn's biggest fan. He fucked up big style with Brexit.
But a guy who failed to stop it or people who actively pushed for it...have to go for the lesser evil. Especially considering the non-brexit related stuff in the labour manifesto was generally pretty good.

[Savonarola]

The British foreign secretary was caught uttering the opening verse to Rudyard Kipling's The Road to Mandalay when he visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar's capital, Yangon. Kipling's poem captures the nostalgia of a retired serviceman looking back on his colonial service and a Burmese girl he kissed. Johnson's impromptu recital was so embarrassing that the UK ambassador to Myanmar, Andrew Patrick, was forced to stop him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqLIm0HOvuQ

Yeah, why not make this guy PM 

Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be—
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea.

Oh Boris, you scoundrel, you.   

[Jacob]

Indifference to NATO, support for leftist tugs and terrorists, what's not to like?

Leftist tug?

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/money/commentisfree/2017/oct/10/the-old-pound-coin-must-not-die-unmourned-lets-see-it-off-in-style

The old pound coin must not die unmourned – let's see it off in style

At midnight on Sunday, everything changes for ever. The pound coin – the old, round, squat pound coin, as British as a blue passport or a bag of liver – will cease to become legal tender. The trusty pound coin, unlocker of vending machines, locker of lockers, will simply transform into scrap metal in your hands, replaced by a bimetallic interloper that looks as if it was designed by Fisher Price for a bet. You're right to be brokenhearted about it.

Except you're not brokenhearted about it. Nobody is. In an age where the slightest alteration to anything must contractually be met by oceans of fizzingly disproportionate outrage, the old pound coin is preparing to die unmourned. Not even the old mainstays have managed to kick up much of a fuss about its passing. Piers Morgan hasn't wanged on about it on Twitter. Nigel Farage hasn't hand-delivered a letter of complaint to the Royal Mint. Katie Hopkins hasn't even found a way to sputter and fart about how its replacement somehow represents a state-mandated victory for Isis, even though that's what she does for a living now.

Vegans aren't on the warpath because, unlike polymer banknotes, nobody thought to splice cow DNA into the new coins. Men's rights activists aren't narked off because, unlike the new polymer tenners, the new coins haven't just suddenly discovered that women exist. The only sliver of anger I have seen towards the new coins came a year ago from a Twitter user with 92 followers who wrote: "New pound coin can fuck off looks like a 2 pound coin and a 20p made a shit child." That's it.

Even shops don't seem to mind that much. The Federation of Small Businesses, Poundland and Tesco are all planning to carry on accepting the old pound coins after Sunday's deadline has passed. They won't be legal tender any more, but what the hell. Hand them over anyway and they'll take them. Heck, if you haven't got any old pound coins, they'll take euros. Or bottle caps. Or buttons. It's not like any of us will have much use for traditional currency after Donald Trump nukes us all into orbit next week anyway.

Perhaps the lack of fury over the change is because the pound coin is a relatively recent invention. It only came into being in the 80s. I'm three years older than the pound coin, for instance, and I'm still young enough to just about carry off a trendy pair of jeans, provided they've been gusseted properly. When I was born (recently enough for me to still be able to derive enjoyment from solid food and some forms of music, remember) the pound coin must have seemed unthinkably futuristic. It must have been a threat to everyone's way of life. Back then, people had been taught to pay for everything with endless furls of phlegm-coloured wallpaper, and so a small metal disc of commensurate value must have seemed like a dispatch from Skynet.

Or maybe this is just how life is now. First, our 10p coins shrank, then our 5p coins and our 50p coins. We have had 20 years to get used to the bimetallic coins at this point, so we won't all spend months fruitlessly trying to pop the middle bit out like we did when the £2 coin was introduced. Our banknotes won't biodegrade any more, no matter how angrily we try to compost them. Perhaps we have suffered through so many changes in such a comparatively short amount of time that we're all just labouring through a moderate case of outrage fatigue.

Well, enough is enough. The old pound coin isn't dead yet – it is thought that we still have 500m of them stored away at home, despite the looming deadline – so it's time to give it the send-off it deserves. We may be cowering in an age of austerity, but we finally have an excuse to be frivolous. It's time to spend these coins as if they're going out of style.

The passing of the old pound coin is an opportunity for you to be the truest version of yourself possible. If you're in any way philanthropic, you can donate your stock of coins to any of the numerous charities who are requesting them. If you're a historian, you can tape them to the inside of a notebook – like my nextdoor neighbours did at the dawn of decimalisation – even though nobody will ever take any pleasure from looking at them in the future.

Bit of a bell-end? Wait until Monday and then tip a waitress with them. Want your kids to realise the innate cruelty of life on Earth? Shove them under their pillow on Sunday night and then shrug when they discover that the tooth fairy has defrauded them out of a windfall. Slightly overweight and delusional enough to think that chocolate bought with nearly defunct money won't cause you to gain any weight? The country's vending machines need you.

I'm not going to tell you which of these I am, but there are six Topic bars on platform 5 of my local train station that have absolutely got my name written all over them. This is the round pound's last gasp. It's up to you to fritter it away on pretty much nothing. It's what it would have wanted.

[Tamas]

Come to think of it, it is uncharacteristic of the times to not visualise the end of everything decent because the old coin is getting dumped.

[Agelastus]

Come to think of it, it is uncharacteristic of the times to not visualise the end of everything decent because the old coin is getting dumped.

I still miss the pound note; I have no sympathy for the coin that replaced it.

[The Brain]

There were too many notes.

[Gups]

Tyr you do realise that Brexit can totally be blamed on Corbyn, right?

It won with a slim majority and he did exactly fuckall to mobilise the Remain-leaning parts of Labour. In fact his "campaigning" was so visibly devoid of any sparkle of conviction that it really worked as pro-Leave campaigning.

It will be remembered as a historical tragedy that the jackass gamblers in the Tory party were running amok when Labour had a communist in charge.

That's not fair.

He was much worse than that. He deliberately sabotaged any Labour involvement in  the Remain campaign. Tim Shipman's book on the campaign gives numerous examples. At least that twat Boris was honest about his opposition.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The Dutch have finally formed a new government. Good news for Dutch citizens resident in the UK, as the new coalition will allow them to have dual citizenship :

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/10/dutch-nationals-living-britain-allowed-dual-citizenship-brexit

[Tamas]

So apparently, in a radio interview with the public the PM:

1. claimed she is honest and open
2. refused to say how she'd vote if the Brexit referendum was held today
3. Said something about not being able to guarantee EU citizens' rights if there is no deal


THANK YOU for the chance of still being a bloody bargaining chip, it is good to know my future hangs on the skill and empathy of David Davis.


Meanwhile, Treasurer Hammond refused to budget for a no-deal Brexit. Why would you, I guess, when things are going so smoothly.

[Zanza]

How are they going to take back control of the border without new border posts and more customs officers?

[Tamas]

How are they going to take back control of the border without new border posts and more customs officers?

There are several ways. The British people have spoken.