Alkaloid wrote:Do you feel the same way about, say, Wales? Scotland? The Orkney Islands? Essex? Because if London just starts forcing chunks of land and their populations into or out of the empire based on what's advantageous to 'them', all of those populations have to start thinking about what they could be bought for, and they very likely will do something other than allow themselves to be sold off as soon as is convenient.
Whitehall setting policy that benefits London and the south-east and either neglects or actively sacrifices the needs of the rest of the country is par for the course, really.
but not exactly actively desirable as JWL suggests it would be in the case of Gibraltar.
Zaune wrote:Whitehall setting policy that benefits London and the south-east and either neglects or actively sacrifices the needs of the rest of the country is par for the course, really.
Well yeah, but there's a difference between Maggie Thatcher fucking over the North and say, giving all of Scotland to Norway for a good deal on oil.
Yeah, but Thatcher had some actual standards, didn't she? I honestly wouldn't put that past the current mob.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
That said, I don't think they should just be granted the right to leave automatically. If it benefits our relationship with the EU to eject them, they should be ejected (and perhaps compensated a bit to stop them moaning about it). If it doesn't they should get some of their autonomy taken back and clamped down on for being a tax haven, along with a lot of the rest of the empire.
Do you feel the same way about, say, Wales? Scotland? The Orkney Islands? Essex? Because if London just starts forcing chunks of land and their populations into or out of the empire based on what's advantageous to 'them', all of those populations have to start thinking about what they could be bought for, and they very likely will do something other than allow themselves to be sold off as soon as is convenient.
No, because those are actual parts of United Kingdom. If Gibraltar et. al. want to be treated as proper parts of the United Kingdom and not as colonies of the empire, they should apply to join. Right now they don't want to because then they won't be able to treat the place as a tax haven. Perhaps if they were clamped down on a bit they might change their mind.
Brexit: Almost half of EU businesses already looking to cut ties with UK suppliers
Almost half of EU businesses working with British suppliers are already looking to sever ties and find European replacements, new research shows.
A survey of more than 2,000 supply chain managers by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) found 46 per cent of European managers working with UK suppliers are now seeking local suppliers because of Brexit. Just under a third (32 per cent) of UK businesses who work with suppliers on the Continent are actively looking for alternative suppliers based in the UK.
Almost two thirds of UK businesses said they have seen their supply chains become more expensive as a result of the weaker pound, with 29 per cent re-negotiating some contracts as a result
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------ My LPs
I'm really glad I stocked up on tinned food and bottled water.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
There's something rather impressive, in a horrible way, about how effectively and comprehensively the British government is undermining its own country.
But then, the Donald is busy selling out our agents and allies to Russia, so I guess "leaders destroying their own country" is the latest trend in government.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.