Current Affairs

[Mervyn and Trish]

Trying to spare you further pain Blod!

[Jan Rosser]

Trying to spare you further pain Blod!

Thank you Merv - such a gentleman

[Stephen]

Trying to spare you further pain Blod!

Thank you Merv - such a gentleman

Merv a gentleman . You on the third bottle of the Welsh grog Jan

[Jan Rosser]

Trying to spare you further pain Blod!

Thank you Merv - such a gentleman

Merv a gentleman . You on the third bottle of the Welsh grog Jan

No still on the first

[towny44]

Jack, you keep quoting facts about EU contributions to various parts of the country, but since we are the second largest
nett contributor to the EU then all of this, plus large chunks of grants given to nett receivers from the EU has come straight from our taxes. Once we are no longer part of the EU, the govt. will have surplus funds to contuinue to provide grants where these are still deemed necessary. So why would we take notice of any of your other false alarm reports.
Furthermore I think your comments about the EU keeping us safe from wars would fail to pacify many thousands in the Balkans who, due largely to EU indifference, suffered tragic losses after the fall of Yugoslavia.

[Kendhni]

The only thing that is now guaranteed is that the UK electorate has weakened the hand of the UK in the brexit negotiations.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Which may be the intention of some.

[Kendhni]

Which may be the intention of some.

Whether you voted brexit or remain the weakening of our hand is not good news for the UK

[Frank Manning]

Though with the argument going in circles it is clear none of us on either side of the Brexit debate are ready to change our minds, so maybe it is time to move on to a different aspect of current affairs before we bore our fellow forum members to death!

You already have I avoid all these political threads like the plague - what will be will be

[Manoverboard]

Though with the argument going in circles it is clear none of us on either side of the Brexit debate are ready to change our minds, so maybe it is time to move on to a different aspect of current affairs before we bore our fellow forum members to death!

You already have I avoid all these political threads like the plague - what will be will be

Thanks for the reminder Frank

No circles, we are ALL leaving the EU ... including those who voted against it because over 90% of the MPs pulled the trigger.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The way things are looking we may all be leaving the UK too!

[Manoverboard]

At our age ... where could we go that has a free NHS service ?

[Mervyn and Trish]

True. But if Jezzer ever gets in we'll be paying dearly for that.

People round here are slagging off the Tories over the NHS They forget that Labour cut the number of beds in our new hospital by 200 and saddled us with a huge annual PFI payment. And bodged the GP contract. That's why the NHS is in crisis.

[Mervyn and Trish]

In 1997 there were around 200,000 hospital beds in England

In 2010 there were around 160,000 hospital beds in England

Bl**dy Tory cuts......

Oh hang on.....

[david63]

True. But if Jezzer ever gets in we'll be paying dearly for that.

People round here are slagging off the Tories over the NHS They forget that Labour cut the number of beds in our new hospital by 200 and saddled us with a huge annual PFI payment. And bodged the GP contract. That's why the NHS is in crisis.

Is that along with all the other mess that we are currently in?

This whole sorry mess is basically down to one person - Jezzer. If he had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with call me Dave during the referendum then we would not be going down the Brexit route, we would not have just had a disastrous General Election and the Government of the day would be running the country rather than all the in fighting that is currently going on.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Underlying the whole election debacle were some interesting sideshows.

First in terms of overall share of vote it was the smaller parties which lost out, with both Labour and Conservative gaining, but the former gaining more. Odd in that most of the floating voters were former UKIP. Why did lots of them choose Jezzer? They have themselves to blame if Brexit is now screwed.

But also the swing was not uniform across the country. In strongly Brexit areas, even traditional Labour ones, there were quite big swings to the Tories. And vice versa Remain areas swung towards Jezzer.

And a new post election poll now shows Labour with a lead. Is that real or Tory voters not willing to admit it?

[Manoverboard]

I noticed today that in a number of Constituencies nearly 3,000 folk had voted for UKIP .... what for ?

[Stephen]

I noticed today that in a number of Constituencies nearly 3,000 folk had voted for UKIP .... what for ?

So would I if Nige had been leader, but not with that other muppet who WAS in charge at the time.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I think Nige may be back. Not sure I'd vote for him though

[qbman1]

Since UKIP broadly achieved their objective, they seem pretty superfluous now. Voting for them is akin to someone in the Isle of Wight voting for Mrs Krankie - unless Ventnor are pressing for independence !

[Gill W]

True. But if Jezzer ever gets in we'll be paying dearly for that.

People round here are slagging off the Tories over the NHS They forget that Labour cut the number of beds in our new hospital by 200 and saddled us with a huge annual PFI payment. And bodged the GP contract. That's why the NHS is in crisis.

Is that along with all the other mess that we are currently in?

This whole sorry mess is basically down to one person - Jezzer. If he had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with call me Dave during the referendum then we would not be going down the Brexit route, we would not have just had a disastrous General Election and the Government of the day would be running the country rather than all the in fighting that is currently going on.

I think the one thing we all are agreed on, is that we are in a sorry mess at the moment

If the referendum last year had resulted in a Remain result, none of this would have happened.

To all you Leavers, if you could have foreseen this debacle, would you have still voted Leave?

Discuss.

[oldbluefox]

Considering the negotiations haven't started yet I see no reason to change my mind. After 40 years of the EU and seeing how they were veering towards a federal Europe I just wish they would get on with the process of leaving.
The problem we have is as a consequence of Mrs May conducting a kamikaze election of unbelievable proportions and Jezzer making promises which were attractive but we could not afford.

[towny44]

True. But if Jezzer ever gets in we'll be paying dearly for that.

People round here are slagging off the Tories over the NHS They forget that Labour cut the number of beds in our new hospital by 200 and saddled us with a huge annual PFI payment. And bodged the GP contract. That's why the NHS is in crisis.

Is that along with all the other mess that we are currently in?

This whole sorry mess is basically down to one person - Jezzer. If he had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with call me Dave during the referendum then we would not be going down the Brexit route, we would not have just had a disastrous General Election and the Government of the day would be running the country rather than all the in fighting that is currently going on.

I think the one thing we all are agreed on, is that we are in a sorry mess at the moment

If the referendum last year had resulted in a Remain result, none of this would have happened.

To all you Leavers, if you could have foreseen this debacle, would you have still voted Leave?

Discuss.

Gill, I think the debacle is very much in the minds of those in the media, especially all the Trots and Bolshies at the BBC.
Yes the election was botched but you can't really blame Brexit for that, it was very much an own goal by the Tories, or at least Theresa's advisors, and the main reason that the referendum is still headline news is again down to the media who keep feeding the sore remainers with false hope.
So to answer your question would I change my vote the answer is definitely no, the reasons for my decision are unchanged.
Back in 1975 I voted to stay in a free trade organisation, not a political union where an increasing number of MEPs have political and economical views which are light years away from mine, and the rotten apple in the EU barrel is the Euro which is requiring constant attention from the EU leaders and takes up far more effort from the bureaucrats than it should and is leading to ever higher demands for budget increases to keep it operational, over and above the huge input of finance to keep it afloat.

[Kendhni]

if you could have foreseen this debacle, would you have still voted Leave?

Just last night my mate, a staunch brexit believer, was complaining bitterly about what has happened ... but for the last year he has been telling me he knew exactly what he voted for - so I was winding him up that obviously this must be what he voted for, so why is he complaining.

Irrespective of whether you voted leave or remain it was obvious that brexit was going to go ahead in some form. The British public was given an opportunity to get behind the prime minister and strengthen her hand in the upcoming negotiations but they have failed to do so. So either we are now seeing that brexit referendum win was an anomaly and people are no longer behind it or the public decided, yet again, to vote negatively giving the establishment an 'up yours' message.

Corbyn did exactly what you expected someone who does not expect to win does ... basically promise everybody anything they ask for since you will never have to deliver on it. May ran a very weak and negative campaign, she basically snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

However the biggest losers are the British public who have seriously weakened their position in any brexit negotiations while dealing a great hand to the EU. This is likely to mean a much softer (and more expensive) brexit due to every action having to be scrutinised by all parties. It is also well known that Corbyn has spent most of his political life being pro-Europe but sold that principle down the road at last years referendum - that along with other parties who are obviously pro-Europe will mean watering down.

If we do not get the deal we want out of the brexit negotiations then the British public only have themselves to blame - they had the chance to show Europe that they were serious and chose to waste it.

[qbman1]

I think Labour have been totally irresponsible throughout this election. They knew they had no hope of actually winning a majority and thus were able to promise the earth and sh*t miracles whilst knowing they would never have to deliver. This encouraged many impressionable voters, such as the very young and supposedly educated students (who should know better), to vote Labour for purely personal reasons. As a result, they have buggered it up for everyone!