If there is an election.....

Well one good thing has come out of all this chaos...the British Public have thrown off their apathy re politics. Everyone now has an opinion, informed or not, and is not afraid to voice it!

Yesterday I met someone who had voted to leave because Italian border staff had lost his luggage. He never thought that leave would be the result!!

Jane10 is not a Scot

Mrs May supported Boris in the vote

The Tories will be filling the vacant seats with nationalistic, populist candidates.

Partly about immigrants which was nonsense, now it is mostly about being told what to do by foreigners. That is the line that most of my Brexit friends take ( they are still friends).

There is a lot of ignorance about. A lot of people thought “Leave” meant all immigrants would have to leave.

I didn't see it myself but my partner says someone was talking on tv on Sunday morning about someone who proudly announced that they had voted leave and then asked what was the EU. I'll ask him what the programme was tomorrow.

Day6 Many people who voted in the referendum in 2016 had no idea what to do once they entered the polling booth. So, yes they do need educating. I have friends who have manned polling stations for more than 30 years and they were amazed at the behaviour of some voters. They were rude and aggressive and demanded proof that their ballot papers wouldn't be changed or destroyed.

venall Our entry into the Common Market was ratified by a referendum won by a majority of 34%. I think you'll agree that that percentage was larger than that of the 2016 referendum. Yet - not everyone accepted that result and some have been trying to overturn it ever since. So, why shouldn't Remainers seek a second referendum to replace the fraudulent first referendum?

Oh, don't bother, I've looked. She voted with the government, against the motion.

Has anyone looked to see how May voted tonight?

Just a thought where is Mrs May these days?
Sitting by the side of Mr Hammond in the H of C, Lessismore. She may not be PM but she is still an MP.

Rubbish Anniebach
There's a sign just down the road from me which says Croeso i Gymru (and another which says Croeso y Cymru).

It is definitely not England.

Moss - the behaviour of BJ et al is unprecedented in its awfulness. What they are attempting to do isn’t self advancement, it’s a systematic dismantling of parliamentary democracy using threats, intimidation and tactics that we expect from dictators rather than British politicians. I hope that we never see the like again.

Miche, too true

jura
I think you mis-read my post.
I did not say that I KNEW any of those things - nobody knew what a total mess our politicians would make of our democratic decision to leave the EU.
With regard to your comment about Boris - no of course I didn't know it would be him - but please, do tell me, which of our politicians doesn't use every trick in the book for their own advancement?
And finally, yes I did suspect there would be some shortages for a while at least, until things settle down - incidentally, not all of them are a result of Brexit.
GillT57 - experts??? There are experts on both sides of the argument.

I think there’s every chance that Scotland will vote for independence - and I say that as a committed unionist. Even I am beginning to think that the sh1tstorm of independence would be better than the shItstorm of a no deal Brexit with an extremely right wing Tory Govt in power for many years to come. I’ll never vote SNP but when speaking to friends who have also been ardent supporters of the Union we’re definitely starting to question which option would be the least worse - and none of us ever thought we’d say that. We’re definitely keeping a close eye on things on the shocking goings on at WM.

True Gonegirl

Wales will NEVER be called England!!!!!

Daftest thing I've seen on here for a long time.

A second referendum will take us nowhere, even if the result is the same as last time because once again it will have to go back to the government to negotiate satisfactory terms or we leave without a deal. Which is exactly what is causing all the turmoil at the moment.

If the Scots want to go, let them. They too can leave without any deal and let them see how they get on.

paddyann have you heard of Global warming? It is something that the world has known about for several decades, although the news has obviously not got too far north. Global warming has been caused by the indiscriminate and uncontrolled burning of fossil tuels (like oil and gas) and left to increase it could kill all of us. The way to deal with it is to eliminate the use of oil and gas and leave it in the ground. The value of oil and gas in the ground that is never liked to be extracted is precisely £nil.

Speaking as someone who has worked in the oil and gas industry, as has DH. Giving a company a license to explore a certain area of sea, is not the same as saying that any oil or gas is going to be found or exploited.

The process is:
1) a licence is granted. This means that the company can survey the area to see if there are any structures in it which might contain oil and gas, despite research before hand, this can be a very imprecise science. Many of these license areas prove barren and are written off.
2. If there are suitable structures they need to be surveyed to see if they contain any oil and gas and whether they are likely to contain commercial quantities of those products. Many don't, so another clutch of licenses are wasted money. 3. The oil companies then need to work out whether the oil/gas reserves are recoverable at a cost that does not exceed the price the oil/gas can be sold at. Currently reserves being explored are more and more difficult to access and the platforms and technology to do so is more and more complicated and expensive.

So for every 100 licences granted, possibly as few as 10 are developed as operating oil fields.

Oil and gas production peaked in the late 90s and now is on a gentle downhill trajectory. There is now thought to be only one fully unexplored province in the North Sea, and that is Rattray and if you follow the link you will get an idea just how difficult and expensive both exploration and extraction will be, should commercial reserves be found. www.petroleum-economist.com/articles/politics-economics/europe-eurasia/2019/rattray-could-hold-the-last-great-north-sea-oil-reserves

The Scottish government (and you, paddyann) would be very unwise to rely on oil and gas to pad out your revenues.

Paddyann
FYI:
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06625/SN06625.pdf
And:
In broad-terms, relative to the size of its economy, Scotland has a much bigger deficit than the UK as a whole, and this looks set to continue. This reflects relatively high levels of government spending and relatively low levels of onshore tax revenues. Weak economic growth in the last few years seems to have depressed revenue growth, despite increases in devolved income taxes.
The Table also shows that government spending per person in Scotland has increased relative to the UK average in recent years: it was 11.3% above average in 2015–16 and 9.5% above average in 2009–10. This results in part from the way the Barnett formula works – during periods of fiscal restraint it ensures that Scotland (and the other devolved nations) don’t quite suffer from the full force of spending cuts being made by the UK government. In addition, as mentioned above, the Scottish Government has been making use of devolved borrowing powers to invest more in new infrastructure and facilities since 2015–16.

Full article at Institute for fiscal studies:
www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13287

It seems you can copy but not read my word Day6. You say that I suggest it is likely to happen and yet copy my words saying "I think" which would normally alert an understanding that it is my opinion. You may have a different opinion. You are entitled to that but I am equally entitled to hold my opinion without being attacked personally because of them. It is not unreasonable to believe it is likely any more than it is unreasonable to believe it isn't.

I agree with that, varian.

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that John McDonnell has recently become more attuned to the mainstream.