Thought I'd start a new thread as this is going to be a major talking point this year...have not made up my mind yet...(unlike bucksfizz)....but thinking of voting for an exit as Europe is not doing Britain any good at all it seems....

a scathing comment in today's FT .....

It is Britain’s misfortune that at its time of need it has been blessed with two of the most inflexible, small-minded, partisan and inept figures ever to assume the mantle of leadership in the nation’s two major parties. The UK has had bad party leaders before, but until now it has been clever enough not to have them at the same time.

Just goes to show that FT should stick to what it does best.

Ha ha very funny Dominic , I know it's you Mike cos Martini don't get up til 12 :-)

It got it right about crazy Corbyn though

Dil,

Moderator and gammon shouldn't be used in the same sentence.

:o)

And I didn't even mention the 's-word'.

:o)

H/S as predictable as ever.

Yawn

Yawn indeed.

Corbyn has managed to get splinters on his ass again from his favourite fence. He has tabled an amendment that is so general that it can be altered into whatever his view might be on a given day.

Isn't it about time our MPs got on with running the country, instead of scoring points? The last 2+Years has shown (to me) that the country can mange itself without MP ( since they were continuously involved in Brexit - even taking trips to Brussels in effect undermining our PM ).
I wonder that the arrangement of our Parliamentary system hasn't been exposed? For the amount of work achieved ( and we still have Housing shortages, Food banks, Bankers going unpunished, etc.)..... a different system should be formed?

Whilst allowing regular folks to VOTE like they do for TV Shows, might be a Big Mistake; some form of regional voting might work - and would stop MPs being able to do whatever suits them ( and their political careers) - since the many persons giving regional votes would be independent - although they might have been traditional voters for a given party - en masse these loyalties "should" cancel.
In effect these folks would be like passengers on the "Clapham Omnibus" ( multiplied by many regions )..... so we might achieve 1million potential.
The big Q is should they give a yes/no answer? -OR- should each Q be divided along a scale of 11 (say), such that no. 11 is none of the above. With 1-10 being variations, with 5 being the MP's preferred answer.
-No doubt you can think of other models-
As a result, - the number of MP can be savaged - one per county being about right - as this would encourage them to work harder - knowing there were maybe 1000 poll-voters to check on their position along the above Scale. We've about 600 MP which could be reduced to 60 easily and this might stop the calling/crowing that is prevalent at presently on show. It's almost TV-Sport already.

ANYONE?

It is "obvious" there will be a hard border in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the European Commission's chief spokesman has said, it is reported.

Thank heavens Britian has a very wet boarder between it and the rest of the EU - but nobody wants one in Ireland - either side of the boarder. So expect more trouble on both sides of the boarder unless the EU come to their senses and agree to a finial date of exit.

If TM would have said that from Day 1 then made plans to exit without a deal she would not be in the mess she now is.

as an historical aside, the party system has splintered before due to the repeal of the corn laws in 1846

following that, there were a number of very small parties who formed and abandoned coalitions, thus causing much uncertainty, but without general elections (necessarily) being called

happy to be corrected if any of the above is significantly inaccurate

Is a wet boarder somebody who falls off their paddle board?

Ireland has said that there will be no hard border under any circumstances, even with no deal. It's should be the EU's problem to solve not ours.

Oh do stop all this you leavers it certainly isn't worth all this time wasting hot air that has been spent over the years, people are fed up with it all and just want some stability.

Europe is not perfect by any means but instead of raging on the outside it's about time our Governments especially this one started being more pro active inside!

It looks as if somebody is stealing Peter Pan's clock.

The EU is not reformable. It is a doomed project.

the russians would like to think so, but in practice, reform is likely to come about when threats to leave by other members start to crystalise

eu will of course be badly hit by the withdrawal of uk contributions