Johnson and Brexit

I'm a bit puzzled by the reference to short-stay visas. The EU agreed at the beginning of the year that UK citizens wouldn't need visas for stays up to 90 days.

That's why Priti Patels' announcement that EU citizens coming to the UK wouldn't have freedom of movement seems strange. Is she actually trying to provoke the EU?

"Hop off you frogs" was a campaign run in 1984 by the Sun. Readers could win badges for sending in anti-French jokes.

www.upi.com/Archives/1984/06/18/Anti-French-jokes-printed-in-a-London-tabloid-newspaper-were/2877456379200/

I have just heard on Channel 5 that the French & Germans are now open to the renegotiation of the WDA.

Boris Johnson has achieved more in 30 days than anyone expected.

Pretty much everyone thinks the most likely scenario now is that Britain leaves on October 31 without anything resembling Mrs May’s 599-page Withdrawal Agreement.

But rather than this being the giant cliff-edge cataclysm that Treasury forecasters like to imagine, it would be a no-deal Brexit with lots of small parachutes.

And there can be larger ones: Britain might promise not to sign any trade deals for a couple of years, for example, and stick to EU regulations. This should help keep trade as it is, at least for now.

GG13 do you have any other sources for this? I thought even AM's offer of 30 days on the backstop referred to the political part and did not involve changing the WA?

GG13, I think you will find that everyone is interpreting yesterday's conversations to suit their own desired outcome. From the discussions I have heard they are still only prepared to make changes in the Political Declaration, not the Withdrawal Agreement.

Really? Do you have a link GrannyGravy? What exactly are they willing to renegotiate, apart from the Irish backstop?

Snap, humpty.

That's my understanding too, GracesGran.

Granny gravy Me too just wish people would be kinder

In what way, Violettham? I've just spent the last few minutes trying to find out exactly what Johnson has achieved in 30(?) days and I honestly can't find anything. What's unkind about asking somebody to back up what they've claimed?

Kinder to whom Viotettham and why? In what way is anyone being unkind? I have listened to the 1 o'clock news and they were interpreting things in the way I described them in my post at 11.54.

I usually find that those begging for kindness are really saying that someone else will not treat their opinion as truth. It is really not unreasonable to ask for some evidence if we have heard nothing to back it up.

Johnson, of course, will make a great deal out of his visits. He has nothing else he can make a great deal out of. That still doesn't mean the EU will step back from its rules. Johnson et al completely misjudged them from the beginning and are now trying to make us think we will get a silk purse out of that particular sow's ear. Unfortunately, all we will end up with is the sow's ear and fine words.

Just because Johnson has spouted a load of promises and sound bites people believe he’s actually achieved something. He hasn’t achieved anything apart from getting more pictures of himself in the papers.

The German press are reporting that he was sent away from Berlin with a warm handshake and nothing else.

Merkel has called his bluff. He was the one who wrote to Tusk and claimed he could sort the Irish issue, so she asked him to give some details. Johnson said it was "blistering" but he could manage it. We'll see...

He's playing a blame game. France and Germany have already legislated for a no-deal scenario. It's quite surprising how united the remaining 27 countries are on Brexit, despite their other disagreements.

A quote this week from one of our ‘National Treasures’:

“I think the irritation of the ways in which the European community has interfered with people’s lives on silly levels or silly issues has irritated a lot of people…

They’re just fed up with somebody over there who doesn’t speak their language, telling him how much money they’ve got to charge for tomatoes or something silly,"

David Attenborough to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblicca.

This was part of the rest of the interview:

"He said that some people in South America and Africa ‘are faced with hideous problems, meanwhile we are occupied with these silly squabbles about Brexit.’ ‘I think that the irritation of the ways in which the European community has interfered with people’s lives on silly levels or silly issues has irritated a lot of people who don’t actually understand what the advantages and the disadvantages are."

What he's saying is that people are bothered about the price of tomatoes while there are some really serious issues in the world, which people don't care about.

He's actually criticising the people who are bothered about the EU.

He said a little bit more than you’ve quoted there - for more context the article is here [[https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-attenborough-brexit-eu-remainer-brexiteer-referendum-a9072516.html%3famp

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-attenborough-brexit-eu-remainer-brexiteer-referendum-a9072516.html%3famp

Attenborough gave an interview in 2106, in which he said that there shouldn't have been a referendum because people didn't know enough about what they were voting for.

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/727379/david-attenborough-brexit-vote-referendum-mess-interview

It appears he thinks the same about people who bother about trivial issues. He admits that politicians didn't realise how much people bothered about trivia.

Yes, he did, but people don't tend to like long quotes.

Read between the lines. He's actually being quite patronising, which is consistent with what he's said in the past.

He could have said something like "The government gave a bunch of thickos, who can't speak foreign languages and worry about straight cucumbers and the colour of their passports, the opportunity to vote on something they're too dense to understand", but he's far too polite and diplomatic.

Interesting how the Express has spun what he actually said

In 2017 he called it “an abrogation of parliamentary democracy”.

Seems some posters have some almighty chips on their shoulders lol.

Those who voted to leave just so they could show they had some say in things - even though the didn't understand what they were voting for do you mean Urmstongran*? Lol!