IntenseDebate - RogerH789

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Vaccines. The United K... · 0 replies · +1 points

Of course we're Europeans.

But you've obviously never lived or worked in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg or France.

I you had you would have been posting to agree with my comments that the concepts of fair play and queueing just don't translate into the cultures of those nations.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Vaccines. The United K... · 7 replies · +1 points

Of course the EU made a mess of things: they ordered too little vaccine; they were too slow: they put too many eggs in too few baskets - fuelled by national self interest.

But so what?!

Anyone who ha ever lived and worked in mainland Europe will tell you that ideas such as fair play and queuing and concepts that just don't translate into the cultures of Western European nations - where people grow up learning that big elbows and might is right are the routes to get results.

The sooner that the UK recognises that it is not dealing with "nice people" the better.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - In 2021 the Union is i... · 2 replies · +1 points

Last night's Hogmanay programme on BBC Scotland featured a spectacular firework display which had obviously been placed out of cities and was at the Wallace Memorial. The sound track was a specially commissioned piece played by the BBC Scotland orchestra.

But none of this made the New Year celebrations reporting in the English media.

Noe the future of the union is hardly going to depend on how a single firework display was reported throughout the UK. Whether the BBC has an active separation agenda - who knows. But this type of passive inaction is a prime example of how the media are playing their part in disunifying the union.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - In 2021 the Union is i... · 0 replies · +1 points

You are, of course, correct to say that economic arguments will not sway those for whom Scottish independence is a creed.

But there will be a large number of people - and enough to swing the vote - who will just ask where will we be better off.

So far they have been given good (if untrue) reasons to support the SNP even if they don't support separation. ie Vote SNP and keep leveraging more money from Westminster. These are the people we have to appeal to.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - In 2021 the Union is i... · 3 replies · +1 points

Do people really think showing up the SNP in the HOC is the way to save the union! Of course, the SNP need to be shown up - but politely; the last thing we need are put-downs that will just be seen as the English vs the Scots.

Those who say actions speak louder than words are right. The issue is not about sending more money to Scotland - it is about Scots understanding what is happening.

Westminster has been so standoffish it has allowed all those signs saying "paid for by the EU and the Scottish government"; replacing them with signs saying paid for by money from Westminster would be a good start - because that is where the money came from! And Westminster taking back powers from Holyrood where there is a refusal by Holyrood to be transparent on money flows would both be good starters.

The Treasury Green Book needs to head to the bin and all the regions and devolved nations get a better settlement - ie leveling up. But let's start by aggressively telling it how it is and showing up the SNP's porkies.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Johnson to fly to Brus... · 2 replies · +1 points

Here we are at the eleventh hour after years of talks and we haven't moved a jot on the fundamental point: the UK wants to be an independent coastal state and to have FTAs with its trading partners around the world; while the EU wants to lock the UK into a colonial agreement in perpetuity.

I sincerely hope there is no more to the meeting in Brussels than our PM politely asking if the EU is now ready to talk about an FTA with an independent UK and then, having confirmed the answer from the EU is no, politely taking leave of his hosts to return to the UK.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Harry Fone: How to avo... · 1 reply · +1 points

"Councils should only enter into the investment world if they know what they’re doing". NO!

Councils should legally be restricted to running efficient operations and it should be illegal to enter into any speculative investments with public money.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Stephen Booth: Agreein... · 0 replies · +1 points

There is no point in agreeing any temporary arrangements! We have had 4 years since the referendum and SC was asking for concessions for a year before that. So if 5 years of talks have just produced an impasse, temporary arrangements will yield nothing; they will just encourages both parties not to concede anything.

If we want to leave we should walk away and take out £39B with us and, next year, offer to sit down with the EU with a clean slate and start working out what we can both add to WTO.

But let's hope HMG don't have BRINO in mind. For one we'd have been better of staying and for two, it would just roll out the red carpet for Starmer.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Paul Davies: Devolutio... · 0 replies · +1 points

It isn't a case of what devolution doesn't mean; the issue is about what it does mean - and I have never heard a good answer to that question.

I voted for devolution 20 years ago because I thought: Wales was already run from Cathys Park and it would give people a say in the direction; there would be a plan to join the N and S with road; there would be a mature debate on the language (which kept the culture and history alive but didn't cause resentment).

I was wrong on all counts and like many people in mid and N Wales wish I had never voted for devolution.

Frankly I am fed up with hearing comments let's reform devolution and let's make it work when all the comments are so vague I have no idea what they mean.

2 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Raghib Ali: The three-... · 1 reply · +1 points

I don't think that sophisticated mathematical modelling or behavioral science studies were ever needed to know that there was far more movement within, say, Merseyside or Nottingham than there was between these areas and, say, Cornwall.

That told us that a localised tier based system was always going to produce the vast majority of benefits and that a full, national lock-down was gong to have minimal incremental virus-control benefits; even though the additional economic pain was going to be severe.

Sadly, HMG let political calls for a national lock-down to run ahead of basic thinking.

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