Read Edward Leigh on Hansard . The link is on Faisal Islam’s Twitter .
The AG will definitely change his legal advice if Leigh is correct on this unilateral declaration .
"A conditional interpretative declaration is a more forceful variant of this instrument of international diplomacy whereby the United Kingdom would assert that its consent to be bound by the withdrawal agreement is dependent upon the interpretation that the backstop has an end date."
If it's tantamount to putting an end-date in the WA, surely the EU would no more accept it than that?
Although I think the EU would countenance an end date after say, five or ten years (wherears the ERG want 10 months!).
You don’t need to say the end date . It’s not necessary to lodge that , just that you have said there is one . I know it sounds strange but that’s what I took from it . The EU can protest politically but still ratify the deal .
Read Edward Leigh on Hansard . The link is on Faisal Islam’s Twitter .
The AG will definitely change his legal advice if Leigh is correct on this unilateral declaration .
"A conditional interpretative declaration is a more forceful variant of this instrument of international diplomacy whereby the United Kingdom would assert that its consent to be bound by the withdrawal agreement is dependent upon the interpretation that the backstop has an end date."
If it's tantamount to putting an end-date in the WA, surely the EU would no more accept it than that?
Although I think the EU would countenance an end date after say, five or ten years (wherears the ERG want 10 months!).
It does have an end date - the date when the future relationship comes into effect. I don't see how unilaterally asserting that it has an end date does anything to control when that date might be.
Right, of course, I think we're talking about the "alternative backstop arrangements" (as a replacement to the protocol) rather than the WA end date?
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure. The best way of learning it is to use Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, still in print 140 years after publication, and unsurpassed (and still available on Amazon). If you work your way through Kennedy you will be able to translate the rude poems on the final pages. I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward. Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
Ah, non, non. Madame May dit des bêtises. Elle ne comprend rien; son Parlement est plein d'idiots. Il faut arriver a une conclusion ainsi que nous pouvons discuter autre sujet. N'importe quel sujet mais surtout pas Brexit.
Er, d'accord?
Surely you learnt French at school.......? It seems to be taught to practically every English school child and yet you can barely find any adult speaking it.
[swaggering] Man, I've got GCSE A-grades in French AND German
Well my youngest has those and in Spanish. Still seems incapable of saying a word in any language other than "What's for dinner?".
The whole thing is about convenient legal advice. The EU having unreasonably refused to change everything to help Mr Codpiece out of a legal hole of his own making, now stands by while he makes it up (unilaterally).
Isn't that rather precipitous until he actually sees the advice? I mean, I can well believe it, but how can he know the changed situation leading to changed advice is not reasonable? Hazarding a guess as to the likelihood it is all just politics sure, but certainty?
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
If , (a big if) , there is serious progress tonight then the one thing I believe a lot of people will agree upon is the horrendous mess that our MPs, May, the EU and Government have made of the last two wasted Years of ridiculous diplomacy. It has clearly indicated that democracy only works if you are an Elite and have Elite views.
Your view is probably going to be more popular but I will completely disagree.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure. The best way of learning it is to use Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, still in print 140 years after publication, and unsurpassed (and still available on Amazon). If you work your way through Kennedy you will be able to translate the rude poems on the final pages. I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward. Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
I’ve never seen myself as a person who can defeat the impossible but I’ve lived and worked in France and Germany despite dropping Latin (and Greek) at the first opportunity. What I’m suggesting, is nonsense.
Ah, non, non. Madame May dit des bêtises. Elle ne comprend rien; son Parlement est plein d'idiots. Il faut arriver a une conclusion ainsi que nous pouvons discuter autre sujet. N'importe quel sujet mais surtout pas Brexit.
Er, d'accord?
Surely you learnt French at school.......? It seems to be taught to practically every English school child and yet you can barely find any adult speaking it.
[swaggering] Man, I've got GCSE A-grades in French AND German
Well my youngest has those and in Spanish. Still seems incapable of saying a word in any language other than "What's for dinner?".
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure. The best way of learning it is to use Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, still in print 140 years after publication, and unsurpassed (and still available on Amazon). If you work your way through Kennedy you will be able to translate the rude poems on the final pages. I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward. Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
A good point. Didn't help much with my Chinese though.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
PS I suppose I should add that I find it inconceivable that anyone would judge anyone else based on their race.
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure.
What you mean is that you need to learn grammar properly. Even learning English grammar will go a long way but there's no advantage to studying Latin grammar over, say, German or Russian.
That actually made me laugh. What would the Labour list be? (I started writing one but was worried that OGH might object if they were taken the wrong way)
The whole thing is about convenient legal advice. The EU having unreasonably refused to change everything to help Mr Codpiece out of a legal hole of his own making, now stands by while he makes it up (unilaterally).
Isn't that rather precipitous until he actually sees the advice? I mean, I can well believe it, but how can he know the changed situation leading to changed advice is not reasonable? Hazarding a guess as to the likelihood it is all just politics sure, but certainty?
Mr Codpiece wanted the EU to give a cast iron legal commitment to make the backstop temporary, so it wouldn't be a backstop at all, just so he can deliver convenient legal advice that requires no difficult decisions to be made. The EU told him to piss off. Now it seems he will say not permanent after all, doesn't matter what EU says. No doubt he will have some passage from Henry V to trot out.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
If this unilateral declaration lodged at the UN was a way round the backstop issue one wonders why all the people in the UK government didn’t think of it earlier .
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
Surely it teaches you that that is anti-Israel, not anti-Semitic.
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure.
What you mean is that you need to learn grammar properly. Even learning English grammar will go a long way but there's not advantage to studying Latin grammar over, say, German or Russian.
Edit: And Russian is a European language!
True but one of the long term problems with teaching in the UK is that, by and large, they have stopped teaching anything other than the most superficial grammar in schools. And this is not recent either. Back in the 80s I had problems with learning French because I had not been taught the 'language of language' in English.
"The major, who had been a great fencer, did not believe in bravery, and spent much time while we sat in the machines correcting my grammar. He had complimented me on how I spoke Italian, and we talked together very easily. One day I had said that Italian seemed such an easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; everything was so easy to say. "Ah, yes," the major said. "Why, then, do you not take up the use of grammar?" So we took up the use of grammar, and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had the grammar straight in my mind."
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure.
What you mean is that you need to learn grammar properly. Even learning English grammar will go a long way but there's not advantage to studying Latin grammar over, say, German or Russian.
Edit: And Russian is a European language!
True but one of the long term problems with teaching in the UK is that, by and large, they have stopped teaching anything other than the most superficial grammar in schools. And this is not recent either. Back in the 80s I had problems with learning French because I had not been taught the 'language of language' in English.
Same here. I only learned that there was such a thing as English grammar when I began studying Latin.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
Wasn’t it a squid not a crab?
on second look I think it's the facehugger from Alien.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure.
What you mean is that you need to learn grammar properly. Even learning English grammar will go a long way but there's not advantage to studying Latin grammar over, say, German or Russian.
Edit: And Russian is a European language!
True but one of the long term problems with teaching in the UK is that, by and large, they have stopped teaching anything other than the most superficial grammar in schools. And this is not recent either. Back in the 80s I had problems with learning French because I had not been taught the 'language of language' in English.
My two certainly learned more formal grammar in First School than I ever learned in English at any time.
I have to say, if the deal does pass somehow then watching the remainers spin it is going to be something to behold.
It's already started to some degree.
What’s to spin , we’re out of the EU and lose freedom of movement . The saving grace is the transition period and time to escape the right wing coup in the UK.
Read Edward Leigh on Hansard . The link is on Faisal Islam’s Twitter .
The AG will definitely change his legal advice if Leigh is correct on this unilateral declaration .
"A conditional interpretative declaration is a more forceful variant of this instrument of international diplomacy whereby the United Kingdom would assert that its consent to be bound by the withdrawal agreement is dependent upon the interpretation that the backstop has an end date."
If it's tantamount to putting an end-date in the WA, surely the EU would no more accept it than that?
Although I think the EU would countenance an end date after say, five or ten years (wherears the ERG want 10 months!).
I’m genuinely fascinated and amused by the importance attested to legal opinions by non-lawyers. A legal opinion is best seen as a method of limiting liability for the provider. The dim, and there are plenty of them out there, see it as a quasi-insurance policy. They’re wrong.
Still, as with commercial practice, I guess it provides a fig leaf for a given choice of action, so long as one doesn’t consider the assumptions and qualifications in detail.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
If this unilateral declaration lodged at the UN was a way round the backstop issue one wonders why all the people in the UK government didn’t think of it earlier .
If the EU are prepared to ratify the deal even with this unilateral declaration and not object to it then that is remarkable progress. Had this been done in January the EU would have objected to it. These fudges only ever happen at the last minute.
When Brexit finally goes through witnessing the meltdown of these smarmy sneering wankers on Twitter will be worth the wait. You can smell how much some of them hate Britain and all it stands for.
That is The best thing about the deal passing tomorrow, the end of Boris career. The End of Dominic Rabb political career. The utter humiliation and ruin of David Davis. The cutting off of Mogg’s political testicles.
What they have said about Chequers, what they said when May first put forward this deal, to vote for it or go awol in tomorrow’s deal pass after all pain caused by their lack of support for it stretching way back into last year, will, without doubt, 100% shred their political credibility for ever.
Think of Wilson “Crisis, what crisis” or Brown “there was never any plans for a snap election” or May “we never had plans for a dementia tax”, every single MP who ranted against this deal they now support shreds their credibility this week now and for ever. They can point to things have changed, the situation is now different, the options now different, the deals now different. Ha NO! {insert laughter into their faces} the only thing that’s changed is you have been played, you have been beaten, your credibility destroyed
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
If , (a big if) , there is serious progress tonight then the one thing I believe a lot of people will agree upon is the horrendous mess that our MPs, May, the EU and Government have made of the last two wasted Years of ridiculous diplomacy. It has clearly indicated that democracy only works if you are an Elite and have Elite views.
Your view is probably going to be more popular but I will completely disagree.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
It seems that the government will essentially say it would be legal for the UK to withdraw from the backstop unilaterally. In practice that does not seem to change very much, but presumably it has been agreed with the DUP and ERG that it’s enough.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
Surely it teaches you that that is anti-Israel, not anti-Semitic.
If you take the JVL course I'm sure it teaches you that about almost any antisemitic poison. Fortunately JLM are a credible organisation - which is why the Corbynites have wanted them out of Labour for a generation.
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure. The best way of learning it is to use Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, still in print 140 years after publication, and unsurpassed (and still available on Amazon). If you work your way through Kennedy you will be able to translate the rude poems on the final pages. I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward. Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
I’ve never seen myself as a person who can defeat the impossible but I’ve lived and worked in France and Germany despite dropping Latin (and Greek) at the first opportunity. What I’m suggesting, is nonsense.
Quite so. Nothing wrong with Latin as one way of learning language structure, but learning a language directly is fine too. I'm more or less trilingual but I never had more than a smattering of Latin.
If , (a big if) , there is serious progress tonight then the one thing I believe a lot of people will agree upon is the horrendous mess that our MPs, May, the EU and Government have made of the last two wasted Years of ridiculous diplomacy. It has clearly indicated that democracy only works if you are an Elite and have Elite views.
Your view is probably going to be more popular but I will completely disagree.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
It is virtually impossible to get to a decent level of proficiency in other languages without having done Latin, which teaches you the elements of linguistic structure. The best way of learning it is to use Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, still in print 140 years after publication, and unsurpassed (and still available on Amazon). If you work your way through Kennedy you will be able to translate the rude poems on the final pages. I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward. Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
I’ve never seen myself as a person who can defeat the impossible but I’ve lived and worked in France and Germany despite dropping Latin (and Greek) at the first opportunity. What I’m suggesting, is nonsense.
Quite so. Nothing wrong with Latin as one way of learning language structure, but learning a language directly is fine too. I'm more or less trilingual but I never had more than a smattering of Latin.
If , (a big if) , there is serious progress tonight then the one thing I believe a lot of people will agree upon is the horrendous mess that our MPs, May, the EU and Government have made of the last two wasted Years of ridiculous diplomacy. It has clearly indicated that democracy only works if you are an Elite and have Elite views.
Your view is probably going to be more popular but I will completely disagree.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
Just noticed your avatar. I used to work in one in the sixties when I was in Edinburgh City Police
"Over the last few weeks, JLM has been contacted by hundreds of people asking us to run our antisemitism awareness training at CLPs, branches, Labour groups....
We have made this training available to the Labour Party NEC, NCC, and staff which has not been taken up...
We cannot accept the suggestion that the Party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism. Particularly when in recent days press reports have demonstrated the Party has failed time and again to identify clear cases of antisemitism, with senior members of the Leader of the Opposition's Office directly intervening in disciplinary cases.
Whilst the Equalities and Human Rights Commission explore our referral of the Labour Party for institutional racism, we cannot in good faith continue to provide our training whilst the Party seek to undermine our role in this way..."
What on earth is "antisemitism training"?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
It teaches you that the star of David on a crab on the face of the statue of liberty is an anti-semitic meme not out of place in 1930s' Germany, because apparently people need to know that.
Whatever the specifics the imagery was more parasitic than a crab
It was a copy of Alien. It’s not challenging to see what the imagery is driving at. Although I’ve no doubt that Jeremy Corbyn and his little helpers would claim that it wasn’t at all obvious.
On the other hand, some of his arguments for Britain to stay in Europe - that the European project is faltering and that shades of nationalism are rising throughout the continent that look very nasty indeed - could just as well be pitched as arguments to get out.
In fact those are his main political arguments for staying in, though it isn't clear to me whether he thinks that Britain remaining in the EU will somehow make Hungarian or Finnish or Italian nationalism less vicious, or just fingers-crossed that it might just keep the tide outvoted in Brussels for a little bit longer if things get really hairy.
His main economic argument, that there are 400+ million relatively wealthy people living next-door so you ought to be doing a lot of your trade with them, is pretty reasonable, though rather skirts over the fact that in globally proportionate terms they are a market of diminishing significance, but it isn't clear to me why that should involve subsuming one's country into political union with them. After all, there are 1300 million increasingly wealthy people living in a country in Oz's neck of the woods, in a market that really has been racing up the economic rankings and which is now responsible for a lot of their trade, but surely even Mr Rudd would find it premature if Australia gave up on governing itself and settled for sending a few delegates to the National People's Congress instead.
On the other hand, some of his arguments for Britain to stay in Europe - that the European project is faltering and that shades of nationalism are rising throughout the continent that look very nasty indeed - could just as well be pitched as arguments to get out.
In fact those are his main political arguments for staying in, though it isn't clear to me whether he thinks that Britain remaining in the EU will somehow make Hungarian or Finnish or Italian nationalism less vicious, or just fingers-crossed that it might just keep the tide outvoted in Brussels for a little bit longer if things get really hairy.
His main economic argument, that there are 400+ million relatively wealthy people living next-door so you ought to be doing a lot of your trade with them, is pretty reasonable, though rather skirts over the fact that in globally proportionate terms they are a market of diminishing significance, but it isn't clear to me why that should involve subsuming one's country into political union with them. After all, there are 1300 million increasingly wealthy people living in a country in Oz's neck of the wood, in a market that really has been racing up the economic rankings and which is now responsible for a lot of their trade, but surely even Mr Rudd would find it premature if Australia gave up on governing itself and settled for sending a few delegates to the National People's Congress instead.
If , (a big if) , there is serious progress tonight then the one thing I believe a lot of people will agree upon is the horrendous mess that our MPs, May, the EU and Government have made of the last two wasted Years of ridiculous diplomacy. It has clearly indicated that democracy only works if you are an Elite and have Elite views.
Your view is probably going to be more popular but I will completely disagree.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
Just noticed your avatar. I used to work in one in the sixties when I was in Edinburgh City Police
A type 42 Tardis?!
I like the way several old police boxes in Edinburgh are now being used as pop up stalls and coffee shops
He sounds very good, I couldn't get past calling someone's mother a horse.
Funnily enough, that's the bit Rudd is not so good at. He speaks idiomatic Chinese with a large vocabulary but his tones are shot. He might well call someone's mother a horse (context is everything of course).
On the other hand, some of his arguments for Britain to stay in Europe - that the European project is faltering and that shades of nationalism are rising throughout the continent that look very nasty indeed - could just as well be pitched as arguments to get out.
In fact those are his main political arguments for staying in, though it isn't clear to me whether he thinks that Britain remaining in the EU will somehow make Hungarian or Finnish or Italian nationalism less vicious, or just fingers-crossed that it might just keep the tide outvoted in Brussels for a little bit longer if things get really hairy.
His main economic argument, that there are 400+ million relatively wealthy people living next-door so you ought to be doing a lot of your trade with them, is pretty reasonable, though rather skirts over the fact that in globally proportionate terms they are a market of diminishing significance, but it isn't clear to me why that should involve subsuming one's country into political union with them. After all, there are 1300 million increasingly wealthy people living in a country in Oz's neck of the woods, in a market that really has been racing up the economic rankings and which is now responsible for a lot of their trade, but surely even Mr Rudd would find it premature if Australia gave up on governing itself and settled for sending a few delegates to the National People's Congress instead.
Australian politicians would struggle with idea of President for Life (as opposed to Pm for the next 15 minutes). Although, FWIW, I think (mimicing Chinese friends) that the relevant lives, for Xi, will be Taiwanese, as one county, one system is becomes real to stave off domestic issues.
Not much of a rallying cry when a - we're already in one, and b - many want that crisis to get worse so that we no deal, or have no choice but to remain.
Comments
I did Latin, French and German at school, and subsequently taught myself Spanish; for kids, Spanish is popular because it is pretty straightforward.
Roumanian has a lot of Latin in it, and Russian a surprising amount of vocab borrowed from European languages.
I am being a bit mischievous this evening. Sorry.
Ce qui se passe a Strasbourg ce soir, c'est du theatre ou c'est de vrai?
I take a very dim view of everyone involved.
If (and it is a big if) there is serious progress tonight then belatedly MPs, May, the EU and the Government will have done their job. Its not pretty but it if there's progress and it is done then it is done at last.
Furthermore in December and January MPs had serious concerns over the backstop. If those have been addressed then that is serious progress.
It hasn't been pretty but in the words of Otto Von Bismarck “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
No It Doesn't"
Didn't help much with my Chinese though.
Edit: And Russian is a European language!
(Parents will know the horror to which I refer)
It's already started to some degree.
"The major, who had been a great fencer, did not believe in bravery, and spent much time while we sat in the machines correcting my grammar. He had complimented me on how I spoke Italian, and we talked together very easily. One day I had said that Italian seemed such an easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; everything was so easy to say. "Ah, yes," the major said. "Why, then, do you not take up the use of grammar?" So we took up the use of grammar, and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had the grammar straight in my mind."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(creature_in_Alien_franchise)#Facehugger
Still, as with commercial practice, I guess it provides a fig leaf for a given choice of action, so long as one doesn’t consider the assumptions and qualifications in detail.
What they have said about Chequers, what they said when May first put forward this deal, to vote for it or go awol in tomorrow’s deal pass after all pain caused by their lack of support for it stretching way back into last year, will, without doubt, 100% shred their political credibility for ever.
Think of Wilson “Crisis, what crisis” or Brown “there was never any plans for a snap election” or May “we never had plans for a dementia tax”, every single MP who ranted against this deal they now support shreds their credibility this week now and for ever. They can point to things have changed, the situation is now different, the options now different, the deals now different. Ha NO! {insert laughter into their faces} the only thing that’s changed is you have been played, you have been beaten, your credibility destroyed
If enough progress has been made tonight (a massive if), then perhaps we can finally draw a line under the whole sorry saga.
https://youtu.be/fjOgglWfJhs
And I like pretty picture of the roses. 🙃
That would put the cat among the pigeons
I wonder if the DUP can be persuaded to abstain. Chuck em some more cash as a sweetener.
In fact those are his main political arguments for staying in, though it isn't clear to me whether he thinks that Britain remaining in the EU will somehow make Hungarian or Finnish or Italian nationalism less vicious, or just fingers-crossed that it might just keep the tide outvoted in Brussels for a little bit longer if things get really hairy.
His main economic argument, that there are 400+ million relatively wealthy people living next-door so you ought to be doing a lot of your trade with them, is pretty reasonable, though rather skirts over the fact that in globally proportionate terms they are a market of diminishing significance, but it isn't clear to me why that should involve subsuming one's country into political union with them. After all, there are 1300 million increasingly wealthy people living in a country in Oz's neck of the woods, in a market that really has been racing up the economic rankings and which is now responsible for a lot of their trade, but surely even Mr Rudd would find it premature if Australia gave up on governing itself and settled for sending a few delegates to the National People's Congress instead.
Liddington is flummoxing in the HoC...like a cow stuck in flummox
I like the way several old police boxes in Edinburgh are now being used as pop up stalls and coffee shops
https://twitter.com/tconnellyrte/status/1105225621062541312?s=21
That can't take too long can it ?