Matthew Bassett

The only special relationship is that between EU members.

All countries in the world are "3rd countries" with each other, *except* for the members of the EU and only in respect to other members of the EU.

My point is that "3rd country" status as it is termed in the EU is *not* something specific to the EU or special about members relationship with non-members.

The only way the pull-factors approach would work would be to make the UK so shit to live in that nobody would want to come here.

There are some drawbacks with this plan for the rest of us already living here.

Perhaps to Putin's Russia, where they would no doubt feel more at home.

Most Reform members believe non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave, poll finds Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate

Most Reform members should be encouraged to leave the UK.

Fixed it for you.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I've never understood root beer. As I understand it, there's no roots in it and it's not beer.

(Willing to be corrected)

... But I'll be sober in the morning

(To finish an entirely different quote)

I'd be honestly surprised if banning postal voting or banning commonwealth voters would have made any significant difference (and actually could be detrimental to Reform given their core voters)

friend sent this over from the other place and unfortunately I did laugh

If only there some kind of Union of medium sized powers that was geographically close to us and also culturally, politically and economically aligned with our national interests, with whom we could pool our power and influence.

The changes are disorientating for me. I used to walk home from the pubs through the old shunting yards (not something you were really meant to do, even if they were not in use) and now somebody has plonked bits of a University and a shopping centre there.

But the old town is exactly the same.

(I've not lived in Lincoln for over 30 years, but I do still go back occasionally and I see more of the shire than I did when I was living there)

When the EU and UK trade it's not so much that new rules need to be applied but that old (pre-Brexit) mechanisms that dissolve the barriers no longer exist.

What the EU does between its member states is the unusual thing, sharing the same or equivalent rules that can be enforced by any member with shared jurisdiction dissolves the natural barriers for trade between sovereign nations.

We need to be careful using terms like 3rd country status, because it can make it sound like the EU is doing something special to the countries outside of it. "3rd country" status is the normal state of affairs between all countries of the world.

Since Lincolnshire is so vast and the roads are not so great it can take an hour or more to get from one of those nice market towns to the city though.

To be fair there are some really nice market towns in Lincolnshire (and some that should be incredibly nice but are rundown due to loss of local wealth)

Does he work for the people of Clacton or is he just a Russian/MAGA asset trying to destroy democracy in the UK?

To be honest I like the busy-ness in Lincoln, there's some good pubs, bars and restaurants and there's generally plenty of culture. Importantly it's also easy to get out of when you need peace.

(bare in mind this means barriers to trade in both directions, UK to EU member states and EU member states to UK)

Nothing either the EU or the UK can do about that.

Agreed on Point 1 really.

On point 2 that's not really true, the EU does not put up barriers, it removes the natural ones that occur on a trade border by sharing a regulatory jurisdiction between member states.

The UK restored those barriers by leaving the shared jurisdiction.

"We had to destroy the village to save the village"

There are many forms regime change can take once it’s adopted as a preferred method to achieve foreign policy objectives.

E.g., Bombs & war, kidnappings & CIA sponsored coups, natch, but also funding far-right parties opposed to liberal democracy and flooding the media with chaotic misinformation.

Well, the UK did put up barriers. That was the point of Brexit.

There's pushback.

It's coming from the electorate rather than the press or politicians though

They don't need to specifically shift to the left on the economy so much as undo the lurch to the right they've committed on immigration.

Even though the M180 is in Lincolnshire, it's tiny and Lincolnshire is still miles from any motorways (or at least 99.9% much of it is).

Also Lincoln is a quite nice city.

That's the place.