Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397849#Comment_119397849

Good for you.

I can't imagine 12% of the planet will watch the Commonwealth Games. Hilarious as it is that you're bigging it up.

The only coverage I've seen of it of late was about a load of Canadians pulling out due to the proximity of the World Athletics Championships.

It may as well not be on.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397849#Comment_119397849

I am sure it will not be just the dimwits that will be watching.

I doubt that the audience will be a billion though.

Enzokk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397688#Comment_119397688

Like how Dorries said the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is the biggest sports event to be held in the UK since 2012, forgetting it was held in Glasgow in 2014? But then again Dorries has always been a joke among MP's and I suspect some Maltese poodles have more intelligence that she shows.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397849#Comment_119397849

The commonwealth games, an event that few care about is your proof that Britain is a world leader? Outside of soccer, I doubt anyone is bothered about the final at Wembley. I'll be irritated that I've to wade through trash on my way to the gym the following morning though.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397990#Comment_119397990

But Glasgow is in Scotland.. Does that count as "the UK" for a Tory ?

FrancieBrady

I remember commenting at the time on the orgy of self praise and self reverance the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics was. At the time it was at most embarassing, funny and not a very serious thing.

But it turned out the same self reverance etc was a symptom of something more serious as it raised it's head in the fallacies around the Brexit debate and outcome.

A malaise that had serious impacts on the UK and continues to, sadly.

ancapailldorcha

@FrancieBrady , I agree.

I was in Sofia quite recently. I was walking back to my accommodation when I saw a load of signs on a railing. Must have been the embassy but I remember Google Maps telling me it was elsewhere:

The signs were off various things clearly intended to showcase the UK as a global leader in innovation and as a welcoming nation. There was an image of some fancy building in London and one of a black footballer who plays for Liverpool. My immediate reaction was to think of Imperial measurements and the hostility shown to refugees. The UK had such a positive image and it feels like this was jettisoned so that Boris Johnson could have a three year stag party.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398473#Comment_119398473

Hmm. I wonder which Tory donor got the no-bid contract to gig up the embassy gates with "See, the UK don't suck" signs.

How pathetic, but paid for by the UK taxpayer for sure.

yagan

Isn't Truss also a strong advocate for a new royal yacht?

That's will impress a few natives in those islands in the pacific where they think of the english monarch as a god.

Hotblack Desiato

I doubt too many Welsh or Scots will be cheering England on in the final, anyway.

The really-not-very-United Kingdom.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398572#Comment_119398572

It was hilarious just how much they thought of NI in the tournament and they were in England's group.!

I remember during Euro 2016 when the representative team of the Irish Football Association were playing Wales had gone to half time, and when it went back to the BBC studio they couldn't wait to talk about the forthcoming England game v Iceland.

Imagine being that much of an afterthought on your own State TV channel DURING a game you are actually playing in. Unionism leaves me flummoxed.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398645#Comment_119398645

And yet the English still get sour when they get a slagging about it like in this ad that was pulled after complaints from the woke righty snowflakes

https://youtu.be/UmkbJlYx1v8

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398447#Comment_119398447

I've heard a speculative theory that the 2012 Olympics may even have contributed to "English nationalism" rather than dampened it down i.e. the success of the Opening Ceremony and all the Team GB gold medals may have made English people look inwards, rather than outwards (when you would have assumed it would have made them far more open and 'international' in their outlook). It's almost inexplicable how the obvious success of the Games was followed only four years later by a referendum debate, with one of its main points being how to keep foreigners out of the UK.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398937#Comment_119398937

It wouldn't be the first time idiots see something like the opening ceremony and misinterpret every meaning.

Auld Bruce Springsteen has been dealing with it for years.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398572#Comment_119398572

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398645#Comment_119398645

Is it any wonder that the UK's relationship with the EU was always one of distrust and presumed Primacy originating from Brussels and/or France, Germany? When your own political union has been defined by English political or cultural ascendancy, then it stands to reason that when looking outward, it's assumed other political blocs are themselves pyramids.

FraserburghFreddie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119397876#Comment_119397876

Maybe it`s not news in Ireland as it`s well known Ireland won`t join the commonwealth because of it`s historical origins but there`s 54 member nations with a population of 2.4 billion which is over a quarter of the world.Considering you`ve worked in a few of these countries apparently,I`m surprised at your lack of knowledge TBH.

ambro25

Considering the main post-Brexit achievements of the UK with Commonwealth economies of some scale, namely Australia and New Zealand, are a couple of narrow-gauge FTAs that manage to tear the @ss out of what little remains of the British agrifood sector post-Single Market exit, I’m seriously wondering about the cognitive capacities of anyone still cheerleading ‘Commonwealth’-based Brexit ‘opportunities’.

I mean, beside disaster capitalists unconcerned by the public security notion of domestic food safety.

murphaph

The commonwealth is a misnomer. Most of the population of the commonwealth would be classified as living in poverty by European standards. Their combined purchasing power is dwarfed by that of the peoples of the EU. Trying to replace one with the other is doomed to fail.

Christy42

I mean their PM holds the belief that Scottish people should not be able to become prime minister in their own country. I can't imagine he feels better about Welsh or NI politicians. The UK will always just mean rule by England.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119400637#Comment_119400637

Maybe as members of the European Union we could join the French version of the Commonwealth Games 🤞

I don't have much interest in the Commonwealth Games but there is an Irish team there and I will be wishing them the best.

johnnyskeleton

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119400637#Comment_119400637

You mean the commonwealth of nations that was first legislated for in 1921 to accommodate the Irish Free State after the war of independence? The commonwealth of nations that created the blueprint for the rest of the british empire to attain their automoy from keptocratic british rule? The common wealth of nations that we left in 1948 to break away from the shackles of the British Empire? The commonwealth of nations that will see mass exodus over the next few years as it no longer provides any benefits to its members, such as diplomatic clout in the EU via the UK?

Yeah, we are aware of that organisation

FrancieBrady

I didn’t know the CW Games were happening until Dorries made her gaff.

Have given up watching BBC and UK channels is probably the reason.

Happened by osmosis rather than any conscious decision over the last few years. Only realised how little I watch a while ago. As somebody interested in a wide range of sports, I was rather shocked to not know the games were on.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401549#Comment_119401549

The US don't want to join either but funny enough no one ever chastises them for it.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119400637#Comment_119400637

It's not news anywhere until tonight's opening ceremony! I mean, I'm sure there are articles popping up, but it's not even getting as much coverage as even The Hundred, of which I've seen more ads for! Imagine, the only thing I came across all week was about Canadian athletes not turning up.

Lack of knowledge of what exactly?

If it makes you feel better to think that just under 50% of the population of the Commonwealth Nations will be tuned in, then more power to you.

But it's fanciful. I guess it'll be covered on news bulletins as wall to wall :sar: as Glasgow, Gold Coast and Delhi were. Will help if the lavs don't work I guess. 🤷

Anyway, enjoy the Games. If it was on in the back garden I wouldn't watch it.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401560#Comment_119401560

Like yourself, I barely knew it was on until I saw that article about the Canadian athletes.

Also like yourself, bar the odd time I go too far up on the remote, I never really watch BBC or ITV anymore. And I also only realised how little I watch them in the last year or so.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401560#Comment_119401560

I wouldn't have known if I wasn't sharing a hotel in Birmingham with Commonwealth athletes. My interest was confined to trying to guess as many flags as I could (not many). If this is the foundation of the UK's claim to be a world leader, the Brexiters must be desperate indeed.

FraserburghFreddie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401560#Comment_119401560

Hardly surprising you don't wish to dwell on the commonwealth, Ireland's willing and profitable participation(most notably in India and the West Indies) in building the British empire must be an uncomfortable fact you would like to airbrush from history.

Only problem is francie,Britain(and other commonwealth nations)have moved on from empire and the commonwealth is an organisation for peace, prosperity and democracy.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119402577#Comment_119402577

Britain has moved on from empire?

Are you having a laugh?

I have to say, I do love it when we get given history lessons from subjects of the Mainland. It's almost like they seem to think our knowledge of our own history is as pockmarked as theirs.

yagan

There was a commonwealth meeting in London in the month after the brexit vote and the consensus was that trade with would decrease as the GBP weakened. The post brexit vote drop in gbp had already seen members seek buyers in other markets to make up the shortfall.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119402596#Comment_119402596

I wouldn't bother. It's clear from all this waffle about "willing and profitable participation" in empire that he is just another one of these posters who will just say anything.

Call it whatever WUM, troll, bad faith poster. Bottom line is you wont be getting intelligent or rational conversation.