British Brexit Minister Derek Davies has informed Foster and Co that the voice of Northern Ireland will be heard at the EU negotiation table but doesn’t quite go on to state that it will be Arlene’s voice that will be heard!
However he did reiterate the assurances given by Chancellor Philip Hammond to maintain the current level of EU support for farmers until 2020. What he doesn’t mention is how it will be paid for and what happens after 2020 which is less than 3.5 years away!
Theresa May, 01/09/2016, has decided to push ahead with Brexit without granting Parliament a say as they, Parliament’s voice, is not binding upon the invoking of Article 50.
Those in opposition have responded to May’s decision as scandalous in denying Parliament a voice on such a huge and significant issue. Actually, those members of the British Parliament did have a voice on such a huge and significant issue when they voted Brexit in the referendum, remember!
Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith’s claims of preventing/frustrating Brexit through this chance of a non-government binding vote is now in tatters and increases Corbyn’s popularity and chances of retaining the leadership .... not that Corbyn ever looked likely to lose!
Elsewhere, Merkel’s usually steadfast and stolid Germany, currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage in Munich by a mentally unstable teenager in July has announced that it will be encouraging its citizens to stockpile food and water, enough for 5 days ... in case of a catastrophe or serious terrorist attack. What do they know that we don’t?!?!?!?
And so, in an attempt to cheer up the British public and her new Tory government whips, Conservative MP Heather Wheeler tweeted a graphic image entitled “Empire goes for Gold” suggesting that the now defunct and once shamelessly brutal ‘British Empire’ has accrued the most medals at this summer’s Olympics in poverty ridden and politically volatile Brazil, specifically, the highly polluted Rio de Janeiro. It has been shared hundreds of times, with some trying to see the funny side of it, mostly Tories and their supporters, but definitely not by those indigenous peoples of Her past colonies!
After the fall out of the attempted American backed coup in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey in turning Turk, has kissed and made up with Mother Russia and Iran too.
Despite having initially shot down one of Putin’s war planes several months ago, Erdoğan has decided that Russia and Iran’s forewarning of the coup and thus saving Recep’s kebab, deserves rewarding. What better way to express your public disdain at a one-time friend than by welcoming their enemies in to your house? At least Putin didn’t attempt to take his throne!
To rub salt further in to the wounds of America, turkey invades Syria under the pretext of deadening the impact of ISIS attacks in its own sovereign territory by attacking the Kurds with the backing of the Russians. The Kurds, backed by the Americans by bombing missions flown out of Incirlik airbase in Turkey, being the most successful force against ISIS and who are attempting to build a home land taking in parts of Northern Syria remember Desert Storm and are surely feeling that history does repeat itself!
Turkey, who initially wanted Assad of Syria gone, are now prepared to accept his presence in a two finger gesture to the Israeli’s who were instigators in the coup also. Assad’s forces are in turn supported by Russian bombers, Iran’s Republican guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah and who are fighting ISIS and all other ISIS type groups and the Free Syrian Army. An army which recently surrendered its military position in a suburb in Damascus after a 4 year siege.
To cap this most complex war off, Russia and America (no France or UK input), having overseen the complete destruction of a countries infrastructure, has declared that they have reached an agreement for peace which by all accounts will basically see Syria return to the political system and government it was before.
And so, as the Irish government in an unprecedented asinine global action prepares to spend millions of public funds in defending a foreign corporation, Apple, from non-payment of tax amounting to €13 billion we can easily conclude that the situation in Syria is not that mad after all!
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