BJ

Only terrifying if you want it to be ?.

Macron is a jumped up Napoleon lol.

Gosh, Lessismore, are you a closet snowflake? It could have been me thinking those very thoughts, can you get done for thinking now? Though as regards Mrs Merkel I knew she had been raised in East Germany I have never connected her with the Stasi. Guilty as charged re Emmanuel Macron though I have no idea how tall he is. Have wondered where Mr Varadkar’s forebears hailed from as his name doesn’t sound very Irish to me. What with all that and voting leave I must be a lost cause. Or evil depending on one’s point of view.

Ailma
No hope for you, then. ?
Macron is 5'10" by the way.

Lessismore - wow the phrase "bottom of the barrel scraping" springs to mind.

WadesNan
Desperate times need desperate measures ?

where does Boris' multi cultural name come from? He must realise that people move about the world and settle where they'll be happy .Isn't he American by birth? Maybe he should stand as a Presidential candidate ,they seem to like blond buffoons

Ah OK, I have been reading up on Ireland and I think his gaff was very unfortunate along with comments about food shortages ( for obvious reasons)

We're definitely gonna get a deal how aren't we?

I am very interested in Irish history. Pre national curriculum, we had some staff from Ireland st my secondary school. I suppose their passion has stayed with me.
My son studied Irish history at University and this added to me interest.

Not barrel scraping? I think it's frightening the way Ireland is being treated.

“I don’t think you can really understand even what’s going on in Ireland now without understanding the Famine,” she says. “The Irish have become a thorn in the Brexiteers side. I wonder if enough respect is shown to Ireland, there are Tory politicians who have somehow picked up some of those 19th-century attitudes.” from Daisy Goodwin ( writer of the Victoria TV series)

I thought the Brit gov have been tying themselves in knots trying to accommodate Southern Ireland.

No , our government has not found any way of reconciling Theresa May's ridiculous red lines with the Good Friday Agreement. Hence the need for the backstop.

Mr Varadkar's father is Indian. I believe his father was a doctor.

Why do you need to know that Alima, such an old fashioned question. It doesn't matter who his father or mother are, she is born and bred Irish if you want to know, and so is there son. Leo Varadkhar was born in Ireland and has been an Irish citizen since birth.

I do not care what BJ calls other politicians, they have thick skins and broad backs.

What I want to see him in court for, if only the court of public opinion, is his failure to check his facts before making remarks about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe that were both dangerous and wrong and have given the Iranians a reason to continue to keep her in prison and make her living conditions and access to her child worse.

I understand that until his stupid remarks, careful diplomacy had brought her to the edge of release. Then one stupid politicians remark sent her back to the bottom of hell.

Shows how many leaks there are now, if throwaway remarks
Are being bandied about ( if true of course!)
In any case so what? Terrifying? Hardly.

Somebody must take advatage of this publishing opportunity and bring out "Boris's Blunders"I'm sure there's enough for a book.

It's not a leak, it's something he said.....*As for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, “Why isn’t he called Murphy like all the rest of them*

all the rest of them.....really????

BJ is a racist, he thinks in terms of racist steriotypes, that's why he thinks every Irish person should be called Murphy.

I am half Irish and there isn't a Murphy to be found in my (Irish) family tree, nor in my English one either.

Lessismore, you have to go back way beyond the famine to understand the deep deep antipathy of the Irish to the English.

It started in 1169. The Irish King of Leinster, invited the first Normans to Ireland. He had just been driven out of his kingship by a rival Irish king. But as he didn't have enough soldiers left to win it back. He decided to look for help from King. Once he had got the Normans over to Ireland, he found as many another leader has found, who invited foreigners in to win his battles, that they wouldn't go home and soon took over.

Then there is the Flight of the Earls in the 1607 and the mass settlement of their lands in Ulster by protestant settlers, mostly from Scotland.

We then move onto the victory of William of Orange over the army of the deposed King James II at the Battle of te Boyne in 1690.

Now you can talk about the famine. That is why my family migrated to England.

Thank you Monica, I have been studying said subject today. I believe it is referred to as starvation rather than famine.

Depends what side of the Irish Sea you are. I have consulted Wikipedia, a number of Irish sources as well as checking the two books I have on the subject and the terms used are always 'The Great Famine' or 'The Great Hunger'

OK Monica, you must be an expert. I am not, just interested, thanks.
www.irishhistorylinks.net/History_Links/IrishFamineGenocide.html

No, not an expert. just googled and looked.