This will be my United Kingdom (UK) topic, specifically relating to the current leadership (headed by Liz Truss) of the party in power (The Conservative Party) and how long it will remain (i hope some of you got that pun). My working assumption is that the current government, and its new Leader, Liz Truss, is DOOMED to fail and that this will culminate in Liz Truss either resigning or being kicked down, and the UK being worse off by the end of it. Now, I don't mind being proven wrong, after all, who sets out to fail? if time proves the current government successful, then more power to them and I wish them well. However there are deep ingrained issues in both English politics and the party in power, such that I envisage this as a train journey on its way to a cliff.

Here are the key problems as I see it:

1. Liz Truss has surrounded herself with (some, not all) people that are either die hard moronic, strongly opposed to the EU, deluded thoughts of self importance or simply dangerous. Liz Truss is also known to not listen to people that give advise she does not want to hear.

2. The conservative party is strongly anti-EU (how dare the EU tell us what to do!) and see themselves as superior (where have we heard that before) therefore will not do anything to be "helpful" "considerate" to either EU governments or eu people, nevermind to ordinary people on the islands of UK & Ireland. That means problems in Northern Ireland (the protocol -this may also involve the US), problems in Scotland (another independence vote) and problems with the EU directly (trade).

3. The EU is on a one-way trip into a recession and it will be very challenging for the UK Government to combat this.

This post was edited by ferdia on Sep 8 2022 06:09am

longer than queen elizabeth, probably

highly doubtful.

in the meantime, the cabinet :



Liz Truss, prime minister

Thérèse Coffey, deputy prime minister and health and social care secretary

Kwasi Kwarteng, chancellor of the exchequer

James Cleverly, foreign secretary

Suella Braverman, home secretary

Ben Wallace, defence secretary

Brandon Lewis, justice secretary and lord chancellor

Nadhim Zahawi, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, minister for intergovernmental relations and minister for equalities

Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and lord president of the council

Lord True, Lord privy seal and leader of the House of Lords

Jake Berry, minister without portfolio and Conservative party chairman

Alok Sharma, Cop26 president

Jacob Rees-Mogg, business, energy and industrial strategy secretary

Simon Clarke, levelling up, housing and communities secretary

Kemi Badenoch, international trade secretary and president of the board of trade

Chloe Smith, work and pensions secretary

Kit Malthouse, education secretary

Ranil Jayawardena, environment secretary

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, transport secretary

Michelle Donelan, culture secretary

Chris Heaton-Harris, Northern Ireland secretary

Alister Jack, Scotland secretary

Robert Buckland, Wales secretary

Attending cabinet

Wendy Morton, chief whip and parliamentary secretary to the Treasury

Chris Philp, chief secretary to the Treasury

Michael Ellis QC, attorney general

Edward Argar, paymaster general and minister for the Cabinet Office

Vicky Ford, minister for development at the Foreign Office

Tom Tugendhat, minister for security at the home department

James Heappey, minister for the armed forces and veterans at the Ministry of Defence

Graham Stuart, minister for climate at the business department

and, Yes, everyone of them will get their proverbial 15 minutes of fame in this topic, i am literally going to rate them.

This post was edited by ferdia on Sep 8 2022 06:10am

So conservatives in England are also nazis?

No, superior. its a fine point but its there. you can google the brexit negotiations and you will see how their approach completely flummoxed the EU.
England : We are better, so just give us what we want.
England : As a SMALLER trading block we expect to get BETTER international trade deals.

This post was edited by ferdia on Sep 8 2022 06:15am

if the long arm of the bobbies are gonna force you to pay a loicense for that TV, mate, you might as well turn it on
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-62834633

forgive me, I made an assumption that you disagreed with my position. I assumed you meant to say that the government would last for decades - as the Queen has. In terms of who will outlive the other, I will leave that out of the topic.

She'll be in charge until the next election cycle in 2024. Maybe just before that if they are within a small enough margin in the polls where a Boris mark 2 hail Mary might pull off a win.

Much more likely they'll try and buy a few voters off with tax cuts, and then pray that the snp Scotland domination continues enough that even if Labour win a huge chunk of seats across England and Wales they won't have enough for an outright majority and have to go into power with the lib dems, and we all know how that goes.

Tl/Dr : 2 years give or take.

Edit:

Ps. God save the Queen. Hell of a woman, won't be the same without her.

This post was edited by WNxIrvine on Sep 8 2022 06:27am

double post (oh ferdia, are you off to a bad start here??) /e legend also yes I agree, within 2 years.

Brexit: What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

As part of Brexit Special trading arrangements were needed for Northern Ireland because it has a land border with an EU country - the Republic of Ireland. Before Brexit, it was easy to transport goods across this border because both sides had the same EU rules. After Brexit, a new system was needed because the EU has strict food rules and requires border checks when certain goods - such as milk and eggs - arrive from non-EU countries. The border is also a sensitive issue because of Northern Ireland's troubled political history. It was feared that cameras or border posts could lead to instability. The UK and the EU agreed that protecting the Northern Ireland peace deal - the Good Friday Agreement - was an absolute priority. So, both sides signed the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. It is now part of international law.

How does the protocol work?

Instead of checking goods at the Irish border, the protocol agreed that any inspections and document checks would be conducted between Northern Ireland and Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). These take place at Northern Ireland's ports. It was also agreed Northern Ireland would keep following EU rules on product standards. How does the UK want to change the protocol? The government wants to create red lanes and green lanes for goods imported from Britain into Northern Ireland. The green lane would be for trusted traders transporting goods to Northern Ireland only. These would be exempt from checks and customs controls. The red lane would be for products going to the EU, including the Republic of Ireland. These would undergo full checks and customs controls. Tax rules would also be changed. Northern Irish businesses currently follow EU rules on state aid and VAT. That means government payments to help firms in Northern Ireland, and tax breaks, must be within limits set by the EU. The UK government wants to remove these limits. It also wants an independent body to settle disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol, rather than the European Court of Justice.

Who opposes the protocol?

Unionist parties support Northern Ireland being part of the UK. They argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK. Northern Ireland's largest unionist party, the Democratic Unionists (DUP), is refusing to take part in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government unless its concerns are resolved. Even though the DUP came second in May's elections to Sinn Fein - a nationalist party which accepts the protocol - a new Northern Ireland government cannot be formed without its support. Why does the government say its move is legal? The government says it is allowed to change the terms of an international agreement, like the protocol, in order to "safeguard an essential interest". It says disputes about the protocol threaten to undermine peace in Northern Ireland.

What is the EU saying?

On 15 June the European Commission took legal action against the UK for not keeping to the protocol and called on the government to return to negotiations. It said it is not prepared to renegotiate the protocol, but has offered to work on how the rules apply. It has also set out its own suggestions for improvements, including:

reducing customs and checks on goods
reducing the amount of paperwork
relaxing rules so chilled meats can still be sent across the Irish Sea

What happens next?

Any legislation needs to go through Parliament, which could take months. But the EU said it would consider taking the UK to the European Court of Justice if it does not have a response to its 15 June proposals within two months. That could mean legal action leading to fines and some experts fear a possible trade war.

/e will do this for Scotland this evening. /e or well, wiki will help me!

==========================================================================================================================================================

Scottish independence is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about.

Scotland was an independent kingdom through the Middle Ages, and fought wars to maintain its independence from England. The two kingdoms were joined in personal union in 1603 when the Scottish King James VI became James I of England, and the two kingdoms united politically into one kingdom called Great Britain in 1707. Political campaigns for Scottish self-government began in the 19th century, initially in the form of demands for home rule within the United Kingdom. Two referendums on devolution were held in 1979 and 1997, with a devolved Scottish Parliament being established on 1 July 1999.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party first became the governing party of the devolved parliament in 2007, and it won an outright majority of seats at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. This led to an agreement between the Scottish and UK governments to hold the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Voters were asked: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" 44.7 percent of voters answered "Yes" and 55.3 percent answered "No", with a record voter turnout of 85 percent.

A second referendum on independence has been proposed, particularly since the UK voted to leave the European Union in a June 2016 referendum and since pro-independence parties increased their majority in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. In June 2022, Nicola Sturgeon proposed the date of 19 October 2023 for a new referendum on Scottish independence, subject to confirmation of its legality and constitutionality.

This post was edited by ferdia on Sep 8 2022 06:36am