holystove

today's front pages of the tabloids are genuinely frightening these judges didn't make a ruling on brexit, they made a ruling on the application of the law .. the judiciary stopping the executive and telling them to first consult parliament surely isn't a threat to democracy.

So much for March 2017.... Good news for the British Pound though. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37857785?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the European Union, the High Court has ruled.

Perhaps.. but I'd still rank it behind your military coup joke which started it all.

I was actually a bit ashamed rereading my post. Usually I'm not confrontational. Frustrating year I guess. Trump better not win ?.

Yes, Juncker is a real threat to global peace, world economy etc. He can't even organise the signing of a treaty without being shown up by a little region of 4m people. Juncker was a horrible choice for commission chief but he's the end result of a typical EU political compromise. As I wrote in my previous post Trump is a threat to Nato, nuclear non-proliferation, limiting global warming.. not to mention domestic policies such as overturning roe v wade, stop-and-frisk, tax cuts for the wealthiest, ... but it's OK if you agree with that..

Why would her first call be to May? May, Johnson and co are the English equivalent of Trump. Reporting in Europe right now is that it looks like its gonna be president Trump. Pretty sad for the USA, but incredibly frightening for the rest of the world to have the most powerful man in the world be someone who doesnt believe in global warming, the importance of nato and nuclear non-proliferation. Looks like 2016 will be the year the angry white man makes his last stance, with detrimental consequences.

Looking at these polling numbers it's a bit strange to have to conclude that the average white male voter is predominantly voting against the establishment, while if the "establishment" wins on November 8th it will be in large part thanks to the blacks, latino's and young voters. Who would have thought this could be possible 50 years ago.. (or even 10 years ago).

I would like a Make America Great Again hat, but I can't buy one because you can't order it on the official Donald J Trump from outside the US. Sure you could buy one on Amazon for a third of the prize, but I want the real thing. So sad!

Say what you want about Trump but I thought he had the best jokes at the Al Smith dinner.

http://www.politico.eu/article/why-we-lost-the-brexit-vote-former-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron/ Analysis by Daniel Korski, deputy director of the policy unit in David Cameron's governement. Being somewhat pro-EU I obviously disagree with the overall Euro-sceptic tone of his analysis but it is a unique inside account from a close adviser to Cameron, starting in 2014 until after the Brexit vote. For example on (to the English) all important issue of immigration he writes: " Our European counterparts pointed out that the number of immigrants moving to the U.K. was relatively limited, compared to, for example, Germany. Finally, as we tried to argue that the U.K. faced a unique set of circumstances, which required a fundamental redraft of the relevant European rules, we struggled to provide evidence to support our case. We tried using absolute numbers: three million migrants likely to come over the next 10 years, 6 percent of Lithuania’s population living in the U.K. already. We highlighted the pressure on public services like schools and hospitals. And we appealed to European leaders to consider the impact of migratory flows on their own economies. These arguments were quickly shot down. Our European counterparts pointed out that the number of immigrants moving to the U.K. was relatively limited, compared to, for example, Germany. Or they called attention to the fact that European migrants paid more tax and used fewer public services than British citizens, which was true. They noted that our economy was growing, that we were almost at full employment, and thus that migration was more or less inevitable. They showed us how our rate of financial distribution to the areas under pressure was much lower than, say, Germany’s, and concluded that we should just spend a lot more money addressing the challenges there. We were never able to counter these arguments. To be honest, we failed to find any evidence of communities under pressure that would satisfy the European Commission. At one point we even asked the help of Andrew Green atMigrationWatch, an organization that has been critical of migration. But all he could provide was an article in the Daily Telegraph about a hospital maternity ward in Corby. There was no hard evidence. That is not to say we didn’t perceive immigration as a problem. Cameron was convinced it was a real challenge — if perhaps more of a cultural one than an economic one. And he worked tirelessly to bring immigration down to acceptable levels. But it was clear that immigration is at best just one of several factors that are putting pressure on public services, along with globalization, deindustrialization, automation and aging populations. "

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/trump-win-election-brexit-right-wing-214359 Don't count out Trump. Interesting take by a Matthew Goodwin (UK journalist/professor). Turnout rates among poorly educated white voters threw cold water on the earlier claim that the angry white man would not show up, that he would be pushed aside by young cosmopolitans and the big cities. Overall turnout was high, at 72 percent, the highest for any U.K.-wide vote since 1992. Subsequent analysis of how this affected the vote suggests that Brexit won by mobilizing people who never normally vote, something that Trump hopes to emulate. The unexpectedly high turnout, especially in blue-collar communities, is why turnout models in the polls that were based on turnout at previous elections performed poorly; they failed to account for the mobilization of unlikely voters. Turnout was much higher among the Brexit-voting over-55s and strikingly lower among young voters who had promised to vote. Some estimate that whereas 64 percent of young people who were registered to vote did vote, this figure was 74 percent among people ages 55 to 64 and 90 percent among those ages 65 and above. In the aftermath of the Brexit victory, a petition emerged to overhaul the result through a second referendum. The largest number of signatures were in young and trendy areas like the London districts of Camden and Hackney, where voters had failed to turn out when it mattered. The Brexit vote is a powerful reminder not only of how identity can trump economics but also of how supporters of populist insurgents are often more loyal than many think. While the pro-EU side had focused relentlessly on dry arguments about jobs, wages and appeals to economic self-interest, Brexit was pushed over the line by a campaign that tapped into an intense cultural angst among blue-collar, left behind and older voters

IMO he thinks Lukaku is so far beneath him that when asked what he thinks about Lukaku he was taken aback and just said some things that could be said about any striker. Or he doesn't know which is which between Lukaku and Benteke.

"He's got excellent aerial game." ?

Well .. Sturgeon announces new independence referendum. Probably a smart move. If she waits any longer she loses any chance of Scotland "retaining" EU membership rather than having to join as new member state. If Scotland hasn't secured its independence & EU relationship before Brexit happens in 2019, they would be in precarious situation.

favorite conspiracy: Obama and Clinton are literally the spawn of the devil alex jones is not a nobody, has loads of fans. http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/306294/alex-jones-obama-clinton-demons-flies-land-on-them-smell-sulfur/

I would also recommend "Zeitgeist II: addendum". Very interesting part about fractional-reserve banking.

He gets booed regularly in international games when he plays badly or does something wrong because he's overly ambitious/confident to the point of arrogance (which is very un-Belgian-like) that he gets zero sympathy. You're right that there was no bobble, the pass wasn't overhit, he just badly missed. After scoring with the big deflection he celebrated by holding his hand behind is ear, taunting the booers, further endearing him to the crowd... It was interesting to see Benteke play against Gibraltar with pretty much the same supporting cast as Lukaku. To me watching Benteke highlighted one of the biggest flaws in Lukaku's game. Unlike Lukaku who so many times finds himself nowhere near the ball when it is crossed into the box, Benteke is always there at the right spot. Granted, can't compare Girbaltar and Bosnia, but it's one of the things that bothers me most about Lukaku when watching Everton (and Belgium) play.

I don't know Clinton (and her history) as well as many other Toffeetalk-members but I thought she did very well in the second debate; even better than in the first. Trump on the other hand was far worse than in the first debate. He never answered the question and then complained about being interrupted by the moderators who tried to get him to discuss the topic at hand. I thought he was overly aggressive and very childish when things didn't go his way. How low is the bar set for donald trump if most political commentators said he did OK... They might be the worst candidates ever compared to other presidential elections, but in my opinion the second debate made verly clear that in this election one of them is much much worse than the other.

I don't want a "hard Brexit" and was always assuming such a thing wouldn't happen because I don't see the point in being tough with the UK just in the intrest of hurting them economically. Also, I see the EU as a political/cultural project, rather than merely economic integration. So if a country was in the EU solely for economic reasons and is so frightened of losing its own identity that it tries to block any type of further integration, every other country should be happy to see it go and a deal that is best for both sides should be pursued. This article quite interestingly suggests that a "hard brexit" is the only logical outcome. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/hard-brexit-theresa-may-by-jacek-rostowski-2016-10

I meant surely not true that such a thing would ever be proposed . But apparently it has. Truely shocking, and very sad that they take the mandate given by the voters in June to try to implement xenophobic measures.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/06/ukip-leadership-favourite-steven-woolfe-collapses-in-european-parliament UKIP seem like a violent bunch. Left without an enemy after the succesful Brexit vote, they turn to beating on each other . Just merge with the BNP already.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/firms-must-list-foreign-workers-gw20ndp5x Surely not true? Edit:

Little bit different here. During the Clijsters - Henin years everyone in Belgium wanted to play tennis, to accomodate this a lot of new clubs were founded. Now that Belgium is back to only producing irrelevant tennisplayers the clubs are still there, but a lot of amateurs have quit the sport. As a result, it's now relatively cheap to get a membership. I pay 350 EUR to play for a whole year (indoor and outdoor courts). Don't really understand why in the US you would have such high membership fees in some clubs. It doesn't matter how rich the guy on the side of the net is, it only matters if he can hit the ball and give you a good match. It's not like if membership fees were only $500 instead of $10.000 the clubs would be overrun with social parasites. I can understand why golf is quite expensive though. You need a big area of land, extensive landscaping, immaculate greens, there can't be too many people playing at once, ...

Yes I assumed it wasn't something organised by any government or government-like organisation. I was just wondering because of all the EU related symbolism during the live broadcoast which I thought was very strange precisely because it has nothing to do with the EU. From a photo a few years back I remember the European team holding up a EU flag. It would be ridiculous to do that post-Brexit with so many British players. Anyway, most people probably didn't even notice or if they did, didn't make anything of it.

First time I watched it (mainly because they showed it live on TV here for the first time because of Pieters - best rookie ever) .. Even though we lost, I thouroughly enjoyed it .. always used to think golf was boring but this was very suspenseful. Bit off-topic and I don't want to push the topic in a non-golf related direction, but couldn't help noticing every time they switched cameras to show a different hole, the US and EU flag flashed across the TV-screen. Makes me wonder if the Ryder cup will still exist after Brexit. Maybe it should be US vs UK in the future, I assume most of the time "team Europe" is primarily made of of British players. On the other hand, this year almost all of Europe's points were scored by the continentals....